Jack to the Future - Apakulypse Now
by Skits-captain
Summary: Separated by universes, Ashi struggles to understand her powers in the 80's dystopian future she has landed herself in, while Jack faces his own battles of a diminishing psyche and the drive to find his love. Both are willing to tamper with time and space in order to reunite with each other one again. Rated M for coarse language, vivid violence, and sexual content
1. Chapter 1: The Phoenix Princess

An alleyway laid dormant, the bustling area outside of it remained silent. Out of nowhere, a flash of energy shimmered as it merged together to form a ball of concentrated power. It rustled loose papers and trash into the opposite direction as it grew. Almost instantaneously, the orb vanished in a strobe, leaving scorch marks of carbon and sulfur residue masking a circular shape. A goddess lay in that shape, rising from her Phoenix-like rebirth.

The last surviving daughter of Aku; Ashi has returned.

She rose from the ground slowly, disoriented and regaining balance, lost within the flow of time itself. Her memory served as practically a blank slate, remembering only the Samurai that she was prepared to marry and the sights of her father dying; one image of his death vivid while the other stayed patchy and incomplete.

Ashi staggered but stood, stumbling to the wall beside her in an attempt to find a familiar sight, only to be met with a bleak slab of concrete and pipeline. It seemed to reach the sky through a series of jagged turns, speckled with remnants of posters and chips of decay.

"W-where…where am I?" She shakily asked with hope for a response, however, it was to no avail.

Air passed through the alley and swept by her face. It felt nice; a cool and crisp reminder that she was okay. She gathered herself and began to take steps as if she were learning to walk again. From the numbness, a pain brewed in her and spread through her body like a sprouting root. She kept one hand on the wall and one hand over her chest, with a firm grip on her loudly beating heart.

 _I-I'm alive! And…in quite a bit of pain_. Her eyes blinked and she gazed into the abyss behind her eyelids and feeling the emptiness. The ground was still, absolutely motionless, speckled with gray patches of different colors, all as frigid as the next. _I have no idea where I am._ Ashi grew focus and her gaze widened to absorb what she could. A shadow that seemed to permanently cast itself in a perfect circle, stuck to the floors and walls. She was surrounded by a darkness of which had only been felt during her possession; the darkness of solitude. She recognized that connection and stood up, clutching her right lung.

 _I feel so alone._ She ran the thoughts through her head of when she felt as an outcast among people. The audience was missing, but the feeling of discomfort stirred in her. Ashi had absolutely no idea where she was, or even when she was.

 _This place is so big, I can't see the rooftops._ Barriers of concrete stacked high on the sides of the alley, but these walls held life. Edge by jagged edge, the walls were host to windows, most either broken or taken out completely, but some near the top housing light. Clotheslines held dust and cobwebs, but remain absent of clothes for what looked like years

 _Maybe if I leave this tunnel I…_

As Ashi inched out of the alleyway, the sound rose with each step forward. The streets were lined with trash and debris, floating freely with every choppy, passing gust of wind. When Ashi looked up towards the skies, however, she could see bright buildings, showered in colorful rays from the overactive, sometimes flickering, glowing lights.

She was taken back by all of the activity on one city block alone, crowded with men, women, children, and other creatures of which looked to have come from elsewhere in the universe.

The storefronts had words plastered on their doors, windows, and walls, written in various scribbles and each being different patterns than the last. Their large panes of glass in front of the store, some containing boxes with moving pictures and containing firearms with large paper cut-outs, describing their features.

The earth around her trembled with the force of one thousand hornets. Two metal carriages shot from a tunnel above, expressing the power of rancorous metal and ravaging fire, tearing through wind as if the world had stepped aside for them.

Ashi realized she was naked and covers herself with a tarp left in the alleyway. She began to wander through the crowded streets as she passed each person, each different from the last and giving off a very criminal nature. As she was walking, she passed a bar. Ashi glanced at the window, trying to see how she looked. _What would I even look for?_ she pondered removing her tarp hood to get a better sight. She looked to the ground, feeling beaten. _I know I'm in a different time, and completely foreign,_ Ashi held the thoughts like an echo until she heard it: her heartbeat. The rhythmic thumping that screamed 'YOU'RE ALIVE' ripped through her thoughts and she stood high.

 _But I am alive. I still exist._

She shared one more glance with the mirror before walking away. But something made her quickly performed a double take. She saw a list of Marshall bounty hunters and at number one in the line-up, she recognized that profile; a friendly face.

"Jack!" Ashi felt that heartbeat and it was louder in her ears than ever before. The busy street around her momentarily went quiet, though she did not notice. The people kept moving along as if nothing had interrupted them. Ashi gathered herself and ripped the paper from the window, wearing a large smile across her face.

Rushing into the bar, she stopped herself and closed the door as to not let all the heat out. She waded through the masses of thugs, delinquents, and criminals in a desperate attempt to find the barkeep. The bar was musty and full to the brim with smoke that hit Ashi's nose like a freight-train; the shaky ceiling fans were hardly making the air any more breathable. Thick patches of people wearing war-torn, bullet-riddled armor culminated in corners, gambling, shouting, drinking to have a good time, trading ammunition and admiring each other's differences. Ashi thought that in a way, it was very like her only other bar experience, but instead of defeated villains, these men and women seemed to be right in their prime champion forms.

As she kept walking through the herded masses of felons alike, she saw a man scrubbing glasses behind a counter; it had to be the owner.

"ESTABLISHMENT OWNER," Ashi shouted over all the commotion, "I NEED TO FIND SOMEBODY FROM YOUR WINDOW PRINTS IMMEDIATELY."

A roaring room quickly turned into a dull commotion of confusion and prying eyes from all around. It was just as Ashi began to read the room when loud footsteps shook the dust from the ceiling. Slow and cumbersome, the largest member of the bar leaned over the second-floor rail and leaped down, causing the cement underneath him to crack as well as a fair spilling of drinks. He regained his composure and spoke monotonously.

"You don't seem to be from around these parts, so here's a free crash course lesson. We patrons don't talk to the barkeep like that, so what makes you think that you, a damn stranger, can come in here asking for hand-outs from him?"

Ashi stood her ground against the large beast-like man with nonchalance. That had been the first confrontation she faced since Aku, and by comparison, he was little more than a twitch on her danger radar.

The photo of Jack glistened as she raised it to an angle that he could see well, "I am looking for this man here in this picture and unless you have an answer as to where he is, you should step aside."

Drinks clattered down as people began to take notice, rallying around the two with an itching to see what would happen.

A hearty laugh erupted from the goliath's mouth, "And what's gonna happen if I don't make way for the princess?"

"I'd much rather you go to the side, rather than through the window," Ashi threatened with the chilling calm of a winter wind. Sounds from the crowd arose, with oohs and questionability; many stared, patiently waiting for what would come next.

"Well I ain't moving," he hissed back.

"Yes, you are," Ashi dictated, dashing forward with a quick grapple.

The fight escalation stopped for a brief moment as the Goliath looked down, paused, and laughed. The crowd began to chuckle and laugh for themselves, thinking that she had no clue what she was doing trying to lift someone three times her size.

She looked up and met his eyes, and with a spark, she made a quip, "Don't forget to sweep the mess you make."

With that, she near effortlessly lifted him, bowing the ceiling slightly. A cacophony of chairs sliding on wooden floors, audible gasps, and shambling surrounded the bar. The onlooker circle gradually expanded with each step of Ashi's turn, lumbering this behemoth on her shoulder. She took a deep breath and hurled the body of a terrified giant out of the front window as she promised. A deafening crash and sprinkle of glass filled the atmosphere with cracking sounds, wood, and dust.

"YOU BETTER HAVE A LARGE SUM OF MONEY OR A DAMN GOOD REASON NOT TO PUT YOU UNDERGROUND," a particularly upset bartender shouted from across the room, vigorously scrubbing a glass. He spat on the ground with distaste and started to saunter to the front of the bar, where a crowd beckoned and victorious Ashi stood. He set the polished glass on a nearby table and rolled up his sleeves on approach.

"First off," he stated with a slight waver of tremble, "no one has been able to lift cousin Krieg. In order to get him a checkup, we have to bring him to the auto mechanics, so DAMN you're strong. Second, you have-"

"I have a request. I need to speak with you about the whereabouts of this man in the picture. I do not have any money to pay you back for the front of your bar, I am…from out of town, but if you can point me in the direction that he has gone, there will be reparations for the trouble caused."

Her diplomacy shined as the bartender stood with jaw hanging and gave the crowd of bounty hunters mixed reactions of laughter, cheering, and head scratching. He got cut off in his own bar and there wasn't a thing he could do about It, as reminded that there were always more walls to put him through. He looked into Ashi's eyes still dumbfounded by her strength and upset with confusion, and it was obvious that this woman had been to hell and back; more importantly, a woman with nothing left to lose stood in front of him with a determined fire burning inside.

"Lemme have a look at this fella here," He gestured towards the picture, "he might be one of the regulars here. If not, I'm afraid I can't help."

The bartender looked over the picture as everyone went to sit back down. He gave a confused look back up towards Ashi once or twice and handed her back the photo. "I don't recognize him from the bar, sorry."

Ashi's heart sank a little, but she refused to show defeat.

"Then what is the purpose of having him in the window?"

"A lot of people come by and leave stuff around the bar, and frankly, I don't have all the time in the world to pick their shit up," The bartender explained, then looked down at the tarp Ashi wore, "but that's not to say that I don't pick stuff up from here to there. Last week, a bounty hunter came by looking for someone and their head got blown clean off, so the stuff was up for grabs. Their build was really similar to yours if you wanted to check out the get-up."

"You mean to say that you took the outfit off of a woman's corpse? To be such a pervert towards a woman after death is unspeakable." Ashi furrowed her brow in disgust, taken back by his offer.

He crooked his head with a confused look, "She? No no, it was a synth. A RECC with the form of a woman."

"A what?"

"A robot, if we wanna stereotype."

"Like Aku's beetles?"

The bartender's eyes perked. He began to shuffle back to his office, quickly.

"I don't know what you're talking about, but before you say anything else, come back to my office to see if this outfit will do, I won't be the reason another girl gets accosted out on those streets." He motioned to his office and mouthed the words I CAN HELP.

She had set traps before. There was desperation, fear, and urgency behind what he said, making it seem more like a cautionary situation. But if he did have information on Jack, she was going to get it, even if she had to put her only source through a wall.

"Alright then, let's see your outfit then sir."


	2. Chapter 2: The Veteran Prince

Vastness.

Fog cleared and pasted an image of blossoming life throughout the land, drenched by warmth from the rising sun. The wind beckoned, light and feathering; it flowed through the air and picked up fallen cherry blossom petals, bringing wings to the fallen leaves. Jack planted himself on the edge of Ai no Gisei-sha Hill, beside the hill's only standing cherry blossom tree. He gazed upon the ravine that zig-zagged downward and into the horizon. His face was brimming with joy as the ladybug flew away. Jack saw what Ashi had created with what little influence she had on his world and thought, she'll never be gone, she gave life to these lands. He basked in the glorious sunlight, tears beginning to stream down his face.

Jack wept for many hours atop the Ai no Gisei-sha Hill that day. Some of it for his friends and comrades that he met, erased from existence; most was from the loss of his love, erased from existence. His quick dispatching of Aku led to more loss to him than before. In the future, he had hope for many years and that drove him to save all of the meek, the helpless. He had waged battle against countless enemies and made countless friends, all to get back to whence he came. Now that his friends and true love have disappeared, a hollow feeling was all that remained. A heavy pit of despair welled inside of him at the thought of truly costing an eradicated future life in order to restore balance in the past.

The moon was soon to rise as Jack sat under the tree, expressive in tears and irrepressible guilt. He must have lost track of how long he was out.

As Jack made an attempt to stand, a voice rose from behind the tree.

"Well aren't we successful!"

He turned abruptly to see an ironclad samurai, dressed in the same armor he wore during his darker days. The figure was glowing blue and semi-translucent.

"No! I rid you of my conscience long ago, you have no purpose slowing up again," Jack shouted with a trembling rage, eyes fixated as the figure took off its mask.

The apparition stroked its beard, "It is you that no longer holds a purpose, which is why I am here now. The world you left to the absence of time itself held more innocents than you could ever imagine."

Jack's eyes lost their piercing guard and dropped their gaze slowly to the ground. He hadn't thought about that. There were many more species coming from around the universe, very many were evil, although the good shined through and seemed to bring more life to that bleak world. He turned to look down towards the ravine, for even the smallest form of life could raise his hopes.

"We are not sure if anyone is truly gone, silence your aspersions at once!" In a twisted way, he was trying to convince both himself and, well, himself of a hopeful possibility. The moon had risen slightly over the hills, casting its light through the cherry blossoms and putting a fine colored layer over the stream; the reflection was crimson red, reminding Jack of the darker days when he would see streams of corpses.

Strobes of images flashed through his head, accompanied with explosive volume rummaging through his ears. The slicing of skin paired with the daughters of Aku, each image and sound more visceral than the last, down to the first sister he had killed. The sword cutting through her neck. Fleshy chunks being stripped apart sent Jack into a panic.

"They were blinded by the evil of Aku, it was their lives or mine," Jack yelled, as he leaped to his feet but collapsed almost immediately. While he lay slumped over, he began to wretch.

 _What is happening to me?! Is this just an illusion?_

A black and burgundy ooze poured from his face. The pressure felt like the heaviest liquid in the world pushed through a sieve with only five holes. Through the liquid, he saw gruesome deaths. People he recognized from the future, such as Sir Rothchild, the blind archers, the Ravers, and even the Scotsman, all having their skin melt off of their bodies and formed the pool. Their screams of anguish battered back and forth in Jack's head when his armored vision stood looking down at him, in agonizing judgment.

It scoffed in front of the samurai, "Pathetic man, you focus on the lives lost in a time that could not be helped, simply because you caused them. It was destiny that they fell, yes, but it was more than fate that paired you with the rotten seed of Aku. It was your foolish sense of obligation; you healed a part of Aku only to destroy her in the end. What was the point of it all?"

The phantom figure strutted softly, almost gliding through the body of sludge. Jack kneeled with a crippling weight on his back, he couldn't shake it away. He stared at the ground in desperation, then a familiar feeling hit him. He had the same lack of power when he faced Ashi under Aku's control. Jack was helplessly put into a position where it would end in spilling the blood of his love or accepting defeat, but the small gleam of Ashi that he saw was fearless and selfless. Ashi may have been birthed from darkness itself, but the brightest light shone from her; she was the beacon of rebirth.

Suddenly, the memories came flowing back, from their first encounter to their last moments together. All in a flash that widened Jack's eyes and lifted the weight. He stood and lifted his sight from the ground to see what stood before him. It was the same figure that mocked him with the essence of evil around it being absorbed. Its color changed to glowing red and what was once a reflection of Jack became a human Aku wearing his armor.

The representation cackled, grinning corner to corner, "How cliche of you, thinking that compassion and empathy could account for your actions!"

Jack stood strong and planted his feet, "The actions that I made are the ones that define me, and the consequences of such actions only pose as more of a reason to continue my responsibility. My purpose," he announced with a smirk.

Floating towards him, the figure screeched in a frenzy, "FOOL, YOU CANNOT FIX WHAT YOU HAVE DONE. YOUR PURPOSE IS GONE."

It moved with intensity and swiped at Jack, in a pattern of mixed throws. Jack shoved it away with a mighty kick, that sent it spiraling into the lone tree. In a hail of cherry blossom petals, it heard Jack exclaim stoically, "As long as the hope for a greater peace is held in my heart, my purpose is forever reborn. For Ashi."

A clean ring of steel rang through the valley and the head of the figure was severed from its body. Jack sheathed his sword and looked back towards his empire. It glimmered with life and radiance bloomed from his tower. Candles flickered from the streets. All evidence of the apparition phased out of existence with a breeze coming by and turning the terrifying thing into speckled dust, only to be carried by the wind.

Jack sat beneath the tree once more with the glistening moon overhead and just began to close his eyes when he heard a faint voice.

"Jack."

It was Ashi.

Jack opened his eyes frantically and gasped for air. When he came to, Jack was drenched in sweat and exactly where he sat down. The sun had only risen a small amount from the moment he rested. That was all a dream? That's impossible! He pensively tried to convince himself that what just happened was in the realm of reality. As crazy as it sounded, Jack had become far more accustomed to the impossibility of life around him. His face off with evil was the most real thing he felt since…Ashi. Whereas Jack wasn't certain of what happened, he knew that voice was Ashi's. He couldn't place where he heard it from, it was almost as if he felt it more than heard it. The wind breezed through his flowing hair once more, reminding him to pull his hair up for posterity on

The Palace resonated each step as his sandals clacked upon entry. Servants rushed through the hall, carrying food and trying to get to where they are supposed to be, as their voices bounced from the Ivory marble walls.

"It's the prince!"

"He does not look well at all."

"Should we bring him a healer?"

He ignored the side talk, making his way up to his room. The idle chatter of the palace help continued as he climbed the staircase. His mind was still flustered, in a cluttered trance-like state; all he could think of was what the figment of his imagination said: "It was Destiny that they fell." There was something so cryptic about that sentence. Was it speaking of the fallen people that fought during the final battle with Aku? Maybe his brain was trying to render somewhat of a positive outlook, but he could only focus on it like a puzzle. He approached the top of the stairs as his parents rounded the corner. They caught one another by surprise and threw Jack from his balance, causing him to grasp the wall beside him. His parents clamored to his side to help him steady.

"I am so sorry, son," the emperor stammered holding Jack's arm, "we had not thought you would come up these stairs. You have been absent for many nights."

His mother patted him on the shoulder, "but it is delightful to see you back in the Palace again! We were just preparing for dinner, so prepare for tonight's feast, we have told the chef to make Kaiseki Ryori this evening."

He gave a faint smile; a dinner of such magnitude would be quite nice on his stomach after the upsetting experience earlier.

He bowed, "Thank you, mother, father. I'll put on one of my better Kosodes. Perhaps take a quick rinse in the bathhouse." His parents continued down the stairs as he moved towards his room, a fading welter showing in his step.

Jack pulled his formal outfit from his dresser and folded it underneath his arm. It had been since the wedding that he had dressed fancy. Though he would wash his Gi, Jack refused to clean the collar. Occasionally he would catch a whiff of Ashi from the Gi, and he'd be damned if he was going to rid himself of that pleasure. Jack folded his Gi and placed it in the empty space of his bed, beside where he slept. He folded his formal wear and held it underneath his arm, leaving his trek to the bathhouse in his fundoshi. He sat in the spring and began to clean himself off, looking over every inch of his body. No dirt underneath his fingernails from when he gripped the Earth, nor any grass stains on his legs. It was puzzling, it all felt real, especially her voice. He had never heard Ashi say his name quite like that before. There was desperation in her tone, one of despair and fret. But there was love and revelation behind it as well. It was a new sound, and it haunted him not being able to recognize it from memory. Before leaving the bathhouse with robe under his arm, he turned his head and closed his eyes. There was something going on out there much bigger than him, most likely larger than anything he had ever faced, but the fact that it remained a mystery as to what is was beckoned the most threatening aspect of it. He turned to the inside of the room, full of fog and the only object visible through it were embers; embers that sat festering until the atmosphere around it would dampen its flame.

"Ashi, if by some chance, you can hear me," he pronounced sparingly, doubt wavering behind determination.

"I will find a way to bring you back, my love."


	3. Chapter 3: New World Order

"Ladies first."

The bartender ushered her into his office as he stood in the doorway, with one arm holding the door and the other led inwards with an open hand. Ashi's eyes scanned the room with every step she took heading inside. Unlike situations she had encountered before, this felt far less threatening, seeming much more like an honest gesture. However, this was still a world completely unfamiliar to her, so her guard stayed up.

"Let's discuss the payment for the front of my bar first," he stated beginning to close the door.

A room of amazing clutter, the ceiling and walls were lined with electronics: wires, motherboards, hard drives, just about anything that ran on voltage or wattage were plastered over every surface of the small area. Fans whirring and periodic blips expelled from a large, blinking computer that took up a fourth of the room. In front of her, there was a metal desk, a swivel chair that was poorly taken care of, and a folding chair. Unless the bartender was planning to blow up the bar in their time, she couldn't see anything life threatening or risky.

"Running price for repair and window work are both separate and run about 5000 bits on a-" immediately after the door shut he cut himself off. He pulled a sliding metal door from the inside of the wall, closing off his outside door and closing off any means of obvious escape. Ashi rushed towards him with a stride, wrapping her hand around his neck, "I should have known better than to trust you!"

The Bartender raised his hands in surrender, she could feel his body tense up. His sunglasses fell off, leaving the seemingly blank gray circles that held the place of his eyes. They were widened in shock and staring right at her, but were almost lifeless. She dropped her stance, removing her hand from his neck.

 _He doesn't mean any harm, otherwise he would have taken advantage of how close I got_ , she assessed with a gasping man in front of her. Keeled over, he began to reach for the wall and managed to flip the switch he blindly felt for. The room surged light in a wave from front to back with a slight murmur following it. A faint memory of when she first traveled with Jack- well, rather on jack- through the monolithic creature. The lanky pods that surged electricity gave off a similar sound, with the addition of clattering chains.

The man stumbled to his chair and reclined. He massaged his neck, "okay, I probably deserved that, a creepy bartender invited you into a room and started locking doors," reaching underneath the desk and placing a bottle on the table along with two glasses.

He noticed Ashi was still standing, arms folded and uneasy, "pull up that chair and let's chat. I do wanna help but we've gotta hash out some things first."

"If it's about the front of the bar, I can try to find a way to fix it," she exclaimed with sincerity as she sat down.

He chuckled, "I'm sure I could bump the price of some drinks here and there. What you did out there has to be one of the craziest things to happen in this bar." His tone changed to a calm admiration as he leaned on the desk.

"Cousin Krieg is our bouncer for a reason, no one's been able to overtake him. But you! You just tossed him like it was nothing."

She gave a faint smile, it was refreshing to see him so calm and positive as opposed to his frantic nature before.

"Elijah South, but people call me Eli. At your service," he extended his hand and held it out firmly, a gesture Ashi was not familiar with. She made it painfully obvious, too.

Eli's eyebrow raised as he pulled back his hand,

"You must be coming in from somewhere way past out of town huh?" He put his elbows on the table, intertwining his fingers and gave an extremely interested humph.

"If I'm gonna help you out, I've gotta know three things," he reached for the bottle and poured himself a glass, "number one, need to know your name. Number two, need to know that you know his name. Number three, need to know your affiliation with said person in question."

She sat stoically, looking into his eyes. A pensive, worried look crossed her face; telling him that she traveled through time could be a bit of a stretch for someone to take seriously.

"My name is Ashi and…I know jack from, well, at first it was my soul purpose to kill the Samurai. But he turned my life around and saved me. He showed me what potential I had, he refused to treat me as an instrument to his belief," she began to tear up, letting out a small sniffle, "we were soon to be married, but our ceremony was cut short by…universal circumstances."

Elijah solemnly nodded, "I understand. Boot-knocking is a dangerous game to play," he took a quick glance at the glass, "how far along with the kid are you? You shouldn't be drinking this if you're past like five months or something."

She gave him a confused glance, "Kid? I-I'm not pregnant!"

"That's what they all say, until…you know, they actually are pregnant," he laughed at his joke and took a sip.

"Look," Ashi snapped, realizing she couldn't exactly dance around it, "I am Aku's daughter so-" she was interrupted by Eli spitting fine whiskey out of his nose.

She continued, "Jack and I traveled into the past to kill my father. I thought of the repercussions of what could happen if we killed him in a time before I was born, but I took the risk, and Jack delivered the finishing blow. In the short time that we had afterward, I think that he had blocked out the possibility of anything happening, maybe the gods had taken a shine to us or something. After I felt Aku's presence leave me, I knew it was only a matter of time, but we made the most of it. When the day of the wedding came, it was the happiest day of my life, but walking to my love in a wedding dress was when I felt everything drained from me. It seemed as though I was looking through a tunnel and suddenly the world around me warped into an endless nightmare. That's the last thing that I recall before waking up naked in an alley beside your bar."

With everything out there, she felt confident that what she said was at least possible to be considered real. She watched Eli proceed in his coughing fit, with red face and all.

He gave her a sideways glare, "Back up now, hold up, not ONLY are you the daughter of our tyrannical overlord, but you also want to tell me that you have KILLED HIM?" He wiped away any remaining liquor from his face and straightened back up groaning, "definitely the most ambitious story I've heard."

Ashi's eyes brightened, "so you believe me?" Yes! I can finally get the whereabouts of Jack! Her thoughts almost rained confetti she was so happy.

"Well, no one has referred to him as Samurai in some fifty odd years. Hell, I doubt anyone's around that still remembers him as Samurai besides me and a few close members of his posse. You don't have a clue about Aku's rule here and you have even less of a clue where this place is; all you seem to be read up on is the history of a man with no name," he stood from his seat with a grunt, "that seems like proof enough to me. Push comes to shove, I'm sure he can handle himself if something goes wrong."

"I'm telling the truth, Eli. I know it's hard to believe the absurd chain of events I described, but every word is true," she spoke her while eyes followed his movement. He started walking towards the back of the room.

"Oh, and sorry about the noise from the CPU. it's the only way to keep Aku's nosy ass out of my personal business." He pulled a rusted chest from behind the large computer. Inside sat stacks of assorted money, guns, and a sleek outfit made of a leathery cloth

He tossed it through the air into Ashi's arms, "The outfit as promised. When you're ready, meet me outside and we can head off. Can't be too hard to find him when you know where to look."

"Thank you, I will not forget your kindness," She gleamed, remembering the words of a rather thankful man she traveled with.

Eli opened the sliding door, preparing to depart. "Don't worry about it, I'll give ya some privacy. Just flick the switch beside the door after you're done, the power company will kill me if I leave the whole room on again."

Ashi smiled, looking down at the new garments given to her. However, seeing her new outfit slightly troubled her. She could tell now that there was more to it than just leather and cloth. Along the shoulders, sides, and chest were metal plates, marked with blood and scratches. The knees of the pants were shimmering with wear, as well as the boots, which seemed to have teeth marks in the rubber soles. An outfit seen as average and normal, not even posing a second glance, felt barbaric to hold. This was a world birthed in blood and let to simmer, and Ashi was about to make a grand entrance into the unknown.

She dropped her grin, "Eli?" He turned before getting through the first door, "has the world around us changed Jack?"

Eli briefly waited before responding, "Ashi, I'm not sure about the Jack you knew, but the Jack I know was born for this world." He opened the door and left the room.


	4. Chapter 4: Big City Nights

Ashi folded away the tarp, placing it as neatly as she could place a folded heap of burlap trash. Outside was a different place, one that required her to have an amount of protection still unclear to her yet. One thing was for sure: she had to be as brutal as the world around her. She glanced at the chest, stowed behind the computer.

 _No, this man offered me an inkling of safety and closure, I shouldn't take advantage of his kindness._

She pulled her new outfit one, thinking whatever robot it was, it must have had good taste in clothes. Again, she turned her attention to the chest.

 _On the other hand, since I am traveling with him, I could at least ask him what I'd be getting into with one of these things._

Ashi pulled the chest from its spot and retrieved a gun. It fit in her hand like a glove, she almost didn't want to put it down. She pulled the sling over her shoulder, feeling badass. The metal hit the padding behind it against her knees lightly as she walked to the door, getting acquainted with what she was wearing. It was no cake walk, but it was sturdy and light. She flipped the switch and the room went black. Comforting. She opened the door and headed out.

There stood Eli, telling some patrons in the corner to grab up Cousin Krieg from the sidewalk and put up some tarp. He walked behind the bar and put on a light blue jacket, filling the pockets with various things. He was a walking preparation kit of paranoia. Ashi stepped up the bar in anticipation for their departure

"Eli, what can you tell me about this right here?" She held up the gun, "I am confused as to how these work."

He glanced up, then reached back underneath the bar to pull a box of ammunition and magazines from below, handing them to Ashi.

"That there is a mini Uzi. Light enough to sprint with and not have it hold you back, but throws nine-millimeter parabellum in a straight line." He took one of the magazines from the pile in Ashi's hand, "This has live bullets in it, and it goes through them quick. This is what you've gotta do in order to send em into whoever's fucking with you."

He gave an in-depth safety course as the bar patrons lazily woke the giant outside and stapled thick plastic to the remaining front walls, occasionally having one or two people walk by to pat Ashi on the back in congratulations. She gave him back a rundown of the basics just explained and got the thumbs up to carry the aptly named "crowd spreader". On leaving, she looked back towards the glass and fragmented wood along the sidewalk.

"These here are the beautiful streets of Little Ponceria, where the crimes are cheap and the people are cheaper."

"You are a brave man, leaving the fate of your bar in the customer's hands."

He looked back and gave a faint chuckle, "There's a lot of mutual trust. Getting into the crime hunters business puts a huge target on your back, so our groups are tight-knit with loyalty. We watch each other's backs-"

"Because who the Hell else will?" She interjected.

"Something tells me you're catching on!"

They continued down the street, rounding the corner and crossing quickly while motorists were halted. He knew the path to wherever they were going, or at least, she hoped he did. Through the alley across the street, there were visible tracks, guiding monorail carts at ludicrous speeds. From line to line as the sleek locomotives approached, lightning shot from broken line to the next in an arch of energy. The two strutted across the overpass, feeling the currents of electricity buzz through the ground. They sat in a booth, waiting for their ride to arrive.

Eli pulled a map from his pocket. There were four circles on the map and a square. The legend in the corner read,

 **Bounty hunter - Mad Jack**

⬛ **= home**

 **O= bars/pleasure**

"We are here, and the most likely place for him to be is at this bar here," he pointed to the southeastern circle. Folding the paper, he leaned back and twiddle his thumbs. Ashi sits back straight with her hands on her knees, there was no place to lie down and she was exhausted. But she was willing to give up a little bit of comfort of it meant starting awake to see Jack.

Radio silence took up the chunk of half an hour. Nothing to say, it even had Eli nodding off slightly. He glanced at Ashi, her eyes throwing a thousand-yard stare.

"So you're uhh...Alfie's daughter," he struck up, trying to pass time, "how did that exactly work?"

"It's odd, because I found out not too long ago," she sighed, "my mother was in a cult all about him. He showed up one day and gave some of his...essence to them in a goblet. My mother drank it and that was how my sisters and I came to be." She averted her gaze from his face and readjusted her sitting to fold her arms on her knees.

He could see the turmoil on her face. She didn't want to talk about that, so it was going to be dropped from the conversation.

 _If she killed her father then, what about her father now? Would he be vulnerable?_

He thought, pondering the possibilities, when a rattling spread through the ground as the tram pulled in and came to an abrupt halt. More electricity surged from the wires connecting rails to the floor.

'Departure in three minutes.' The broken voice box overhead wavered.

The duo boarded the rickety Sleek tram through the Crooked sliding door. It was surprisingly clean inside, even the two patrons within didn't fit the profiles of those on the street. one would think that the inside was relatively untouched in comparison to the outside, which seemed battered and attacked. They both sat in the back of the first car, Eli taking his legs up on one of the Rails and Asha pulling in her legs and sitting in the corner, about to get some rest after such an exciting welcome.

She closed her eyes for a bit of shut eye. She began to dream. Dream of her birth, growing up, and what she was taught. It wasn't a coincidence that all she saw around her was red, she was born through hatred; she was born to destroy the man that she came to love. She dreamed of all the colors that Jack had brought into her life. When in comparison to what Aku presented.

She opened her eyes and she was in front of a fire outside of the crashed prison ship. Jack sat on the other side of the fire with a grim look across his face, "it is the only way I will ever see it again."

Jack stared into the crackling fire as if he were channeling a deep power from the burning wood; his emotional stability looked to be dwindling.

Ashi had to bring him back, "When I asked you if Aku made the stars, you told me how your mother remembered it. As a memory."

Jack broke from the fire and looked towards Ashi, intrigued.

She rose from her seat and sauntered over to his side, sitting down beside him.

He was both interested, and flustered.

"Tell me more about what made the world."

They sat and talked for hours, Jack told stories of different gods from different places he was raised. He spoke of the gods that he had met, the ones that gave him and his father the sword to defeat evil. He spoke of the times he had rescued so many from the treacherous land around them and joked about many times where he felt way too out of place, particularly once with high heels. At this point, they are both facing each other and their eyes are locked together. Ashi smiles and places her hand on Jack's knee, scooting closer to him. If she thought he was red before, his cheeks we about cherry right then.

"You've done so much to change the world you live in now," she sighed, "and from the people I've met, I'd say you're doing a good job of saving it."

He nodded his head forward, "It is a wonderful feeling, having helped those who are in need."

Ashi placed her head on Jack's shoulder as they stared into the fire.

"Jack?" His eyes shifted, "you had family and loved ones in the past. You have made countless loved ones in the future, but how about the chance at…"

Their eyes met.

"A family?"

At that moment, a connection was felt. Not only did their eyes meet but something resonated inside them that was much more than a just meeting. Jack leaned forward, wrapping his arms around her as she reciprocated the were locked in an intense kiss, running their fingers along each other with frantic desperation. A chorus of moans rose from the tango of heat and passion. They craved the embrace; their warmth radiating and setting their very nerves alive with elation. They fell into the sand with pounding hearts pressed together. Their kiss broke, much to Ashi's dismay.

"Ashi."

"Jack."

" **Ashi."**

She napped awake to be greeted with a half grinning mess of a man-electroid-thing standing beside her with two steaming cups in his hands. She glanced beside her and saw lights flying by the window. The memory of boarding a streamlined shuttle resurfaced in her muddled recollections.

Ashi rubbed her neck and squinted from the flickering fluorescent lights overhead, "you had better have a good reason to wake me up," she hissed with disgruntled anger.

Eli extended a drink, "Here, have some coffee. You can't sleep for more than two hours between stops, otherwise, the seat gives you a shock. I thought you'd rather get a rude awakening with catering."

The coffee tasted like shit, but he was right.

"Had a pleasant dream, I hope?"

"Oh yes, one of the first times Jack and I got intimate." Her face lit up and her stomach dropped remembering that feeling. Good lord, she missed the gruffness of that man.

"Well, cheers to reuniting lost hearts!"

Their cheap cardboard paper cups thankfully didn't fold on impact.

"We should be getting there in about 45 minutes."

"In that case, I'll take a seat over here in hopes to doze off again."

She sprawled along the opposite line of seats, grumbling and rubbing her eyes.

"Maybe the Samurai will make an appearance again!"

The only other two in the cart raised in unison, even down to the turning and facing; all together.

Eli took notice of the approaching men. He turned and began to walk towards Ashi. He looked past her through the back shuttle window.

"Do you recall what I mentioned earlier about sending lead into whoever's fucking with you?"

"Yes. Are these men 'fucking with us'?"

He nodded, reaching into his pocket, "I'll give you a signal. Don't worry, it'll be obvious."

Eli raised his voice a little louder, to no one in particular, "Alright, I'm gonna get some refills on those coffees." He picked up her still steaming cup. As he got closer between the two, Ashi began to pull back the charging handle on the Uzi. Eli walked between them as their eyes scanned his every move. The man on the right reached out for Eli, who turned around and chucked the coffee into his face. Ashi let the charging bolt slam forward as she took aim at the other man winding up for an uppercut. She tried pulling the trigger but nothing happened. It mocked her as she witnessed the two gang up on Eli. She'd had enough. Ashi leaped from her seat and threw a kick into one trying to inject Eli with an unknown solution. Part of the man's face broke into shards. A porcelain-like shell, only much harder, she noticed. Now that his attention was diverted Ashi grappled the imitation fleshy parts of his shoulders and sent him into a spiral down the corridor, hitting a majority of the standing poles on the way down. Eli sent a push kick into the other one's stomach. It turned in a spiral and jutted towards him, knocking him to the ground.

"Sympathizers must be eliminated," the man presented in a monotonous voice. Eli reached into his coat, realizing Ashi had the situation behind him covered.

"Looks like you missed your daily dose of vitamin buck shot." Eli pulled a shotgun from his coat and blasted two sparking holes in his attacker. He dropped like a sack of bricks: horribly maimed bricks.

He turned to see Ashi, holding the other man's head through a pane of glass and pressing it against the exposed tunnel wall. There wasn't much left anymore, but what was left was quickly being stripped from the rest. She let go of the body and let the crevice beneath the rails take it away.

"This gun malfunctioned when I tried to help!" She raised her voice begrudgingly.

He glanced over at the gun lying on the seat "Did you accidentally switch the safety on?"

During his comprehensive five-minute firearm lesson, he referred to the safety as the 'bummer setting', and then she understood why he referred to it as that.

"I guess I did." She confessed. The butchered bot on the floor was still twitching. Ashi walked over and stood beside him.

Eli spoke up, "here's your opportunity to use it with the safety off."

It was a mercy killing at this point. The electrical mess spasmed on the ground. She held the gun at her side and flicked the safety off. Four shots rang out, all going directly through the head and bringing the shaking to a halt. Smoke crept from the barrel of the gun as the shuttle emerged from the tunnel and basked in the light from the city.

Eli was astonished. She didn't even have to say anything, and she came off as a badass. He regretted the one-liner earlier.

They tossed the body outside the broken window. With only 30 minutes til their next stop, they took a seat.

"So…" Ashi broke the silence, "These encounters must happen often." She brushed the glass from her spaulders.

Eli picked up his sunglasses from the ground, "Usually they travel in bigger groups, I guess daddy's letting guard down."

Silence rekindled.

"His influence is everywhere in this world at the same time. For the longest time. It's like how my office worked: many small electronics plugged into a huge mainframe. He's everywhere in one way or another, but the wonderful thing about electricity is that it jumps around so much, he can't hear everything at once. We call those guys we just took out tracers," he looked at the broken connections, splattered on the ground with oil and bullet holes, "they're like minions that he makes, but he rarely uses his camera feeds on them."

"So he is fully electronic? His presence is just implied and constant, but always there?"

Eli nodded, "And to very few, he's like a fucked up boogeyman, causing havoc once the moon comes up."

"With an entire world plugged into some story of technology," a troubled look crossed Ashi's face, "nobody can escape it."

"Your man once said 'the one that gave us keys to this kingdom of lights and life was the devil himself, getting off on taking it away'. Sounded almost biblical the way he said it."

She faintly grinned. Though it sounded out of place to hear Jack say something so crude, that sounded like something his voice would be compared to: something biblical.

Eli got up from his seat and walked to the window with his hands in his pockets. He glanced at the time projected overhead.

23 minutes till arrival.

The stop was pretty far out of the way from the bar. Hell, he caught a glimpse of the bar from there. Brash decision making came in handy around this world, and he was about to make a train ride a little shorter.

"Ashi, I'm gonna need you to follow my lead," she looked up, "once I set off this fire alarm, you grab onto something solid on the ground. This thing is going to grind to a quick halt and the last thing you'd want is to go flying through that wall."

She nodded, "Right."

Eli took the lighter from his pocket and picked up the cardboard cup next to him. He set it ablaze and held it up towards the ceiling. Ashi gripped the nearest stabilizing pole while Eli pulled back his arm and curled his fist, sending it through the sliding door window. They held on to what they had as a deafening siren wailed on the loud speakers. The tram came to an abrupt and violent stall, decelerating from 400 miles an hour to zero in less than five seconds. Ashi dug her feet into the metal floor and kept herself ready to move. With the force of the stop, Eli managed to grip the door and shove it open, causing a ripple in the side it was connected to.

"Now Ashi! Jump!" He shouted as he leaped from the shuttle.

Ashi gazed as the silhouette of Eli became engulfed in static electricity, shooting from the rails. She took a deep breath, pulled her feet from the floor, and fell into a sprint towards the exit. She vaulted from the tram in a hail of sparks. Flying through the air gave her little perception in visualizing her surroundings, but she managed to find ground; said ground came in the form of a brick wall. She pushed off of the wall into a spiral, landing on a smaller building. The fall on her back knocked the wind out of her, but she wouldn't stop, she couldn't stop. Jack was close and Ashi could feel it. She hopped to her feet and down the fire escape.

Her superhero landing was impeccable. Rather, a superhero gymnast landing would be more accurate. A delicate landing, but unscathed and precise.

Down the street, she saw Eli hobbling towards her. His limp was heavy and he held in left arm, appearing wounded. She met him halfway in front of a brightly lit laundromat. He didn't only appear to be injured, he was missing the skin from his elbow down. Protruding from the skin was a chunk of metal, shining in the night.

"Hold still, I think you have some metal lodged in your arm," Ashi said frantically, reaching to pull it out.

"Nah, don't touch it," he grunted pushing her hands aside, "that is my arm. I'll be fine." The coat on his other shoulder drooped down.

Ashi picked it up and placed it back over his back, "If you say so. I have some questions, however."

"We don't have time for that now," he turned away and began walking down the street, "we gotta get there before anyone responds to that shuttle. I'll explain later."

The bar was even seedier than the last, but smaller; that was just from the outside. Eli pounded on the large metal door. A blood-spattered steel plate moved open and the two were met with ravaged eyes.

"Only in the face of danger." The voice behind the door expelled with blues pounding from the room behind him.

"Paul, you know me."

"I know you, Eli, but not her," he hissed.

"Fine. Aim true, ye vengeful." Eli was obviously losing his temper, "Now let us in, you stubborn bastard."

The burly man opened the door and let the two in. Inside the bar, it was dark. Darker than the last, but instead of homely wood and decorative additions, the area consisted of stained metals and deep neon. Robotic arms served drinks at the small bar, adjacent to a stage with heavy purple lights cascading over the band of well-dressed gentlemen. Eli gave an earful to Paul, but Ashi could not hear a single word. Everything went silent around her, but the song playing, and a focus on the man on the corner barstool. His profile was unmistakable from the picture taken from the window.

There was Jack, sitting right in front of her.

Her fixated eyes never wavered from him, and as she walked, Ashi felt like she was merely gravitating towards him as opposed to walking. There were no muscles in it, the moving was effortless; what she had to overcome was the crushing feeling around her stomach and the knot in her throat. Her legs began to wobble, but just in time to fall into his chest as he turned around to see who entered the bar. Tears ran down her cheek as she wrapped her arms around his waist.

"Jack, it has been torture without you! My life, my future, my past; all flashed before my eyes in bearing witness to the universe. But it was destiny! Sheer destiny that we would find each other again!"

Something was wrong, however. He didn't hug her back.

"Honey, we've gotta find each other once to find each other again, and I don't know you from anywhere."

Ashi stood to see his face. It couldn't be a trick, that was Jack's voice, body, and smell. It wasn't until she saw the metal, gleaming eye that was hidden by his profile that she knew.

This was Jack, but nowhere near the Jack that she knew.

Back to square one on confusion avenue.

* * *

Captain's log:

Feels good to finally have all these works put together! This chapter was a bit of a doozie, made of mix-mashed ideas and post existential crisis panic, but it's the longest one out of the bunch so far.

The Jack story will be coming up soon, but until then, thank you all for reading!


	5. Chapter 5: Path of a Living Passion

Two days after his 'nightmare', Jack followed up on his promise. He began delving deep into every book he could find that held a chance of getting her back. But being such a specific subject of 'my fiancee literally disappeared off of the face of the Earth', his options were limited in terms of helpful literature. He had gone to the outreaches of his village, where a Buddhist convent held their practices. He spoke to many monks, who he had trained beside for what seemed so long ago. The monks offered only what advice they could:

"We cannot bring to life what is gone. Revival is out of our hands."

He had become incredibly reclusive, pinning few pages and scriptures. Jack managed to pair changing astronomy records with paths to enlightenment. His knowledge was driven by madness; love and passion abound, but there's no dancing around it, he was inadvertently batshit to play God.

Jack's parents had noticed a very apparent change in their son's Behavior. It was enough that he had lost his beloved wife but never had a circumstance arisen where someone had literally disappeared out of thin air during such a momentous ceremony. Since their names and their Kingdom held much weight after the death of Aku, they decided to have a massive banquet of sorts. They had sent out Falcons, Messengers, couriers, all the like carrying gifts, letters, and most of all requests, so as to bring their finest dining Ware and customs to appreciate the world that Jack had saved for them. They had thought to include Ashi because she was the one who risked it all for what they had. Although in their son's current state, they thought it best not to connect them. They began to prepare.

This was a festival to bring an end to ordinary festivals. This was to last for two full months, holding the presence of guests from all over the world. Jack was told and begrudgingly attended, his eyes have dark circles underneath them and his hair was slightly frizzy, but that didn't stop him from donning ceremonial gown. Oh, the masses that gathered to see him! Many of them were his friends that he met during his training to face Aku. They traveled great distances to see how he was doing since the recent wedding Fiasco. It was odd for them, just as odd as it was for those that attended. The ones that couldn't make it only wished the absolute best for Jack and brought many gifts, that in the grand scheme of things would hold as simple heirlooms in the future, but the gesture was more than appreciated. One of these few to approach him was none other than his archery instructor, Robin Hood, with a man from the capital. The commoner looked to be a feeble man in pressed cuffed tunic and very crude spectacles, but he held himself in high esteem though his clothes were only a step above that of a normal servant. They all sat down and shared some sake, which gradually became Jack's closest friend.

"Jack, I am dreadfully sorry to hear about your wife. I would have come to your aid as quickly as I could, had the palace guards not dismissed yours truly from the ceremony." The bandit of Nottingham placed his cup on the table. It was strong for even him, but Jack was knocking them back like they were cups of water.

"I am very sorry about that," Jack explained, "the guards were certain that there was someone with a vast amount of sorcery involved with her disappearance. Having everybody evacuated was only a precaution."

"That is entirely understandable...Jack."

Jack gave his friend a crooked confused look. The inflection was odd, almost unsure.

"Beggeth pardon, friend. The familiarity with your new name falls quite loft on my ears. It is unusual, to say the least." Robin Hood moved his footing. These westerners were not used to the ground seating customs, so their formalities came off as a little awkward.

Jack found it humorous enough to give a slight chuckle.

"How is the countryside in England holding? Are the crops yielding well this year?" Jack tried to diffuse the conversation from being about him, but he had a sneaking suspicion from the festivities around him, it would be difficult to do.

"Merry, the crops are becoming established; adjusting to the dirt," the commoner took a bite from the sushi in front of him, "and your crops? How lay the cane?"

Jack frowned, "Not well this year. So far, the cane is seemingly compromised. The stocks are feeble and the taste is not sweet, but bitter."

The commoner's eyebrow raised, "So, one is to assume that the crop is not adjusted to the area. Fascinating, sir." He took another sushi roll, "tragic, but fascinating."

A brief silence filled the room as Jack looked at this cryptic commoner. There was more to his words than he let on, could he be making an aside about Jack? His intrigue was interrupted by Robin Hood chuckling and slapping the commoner on the back, making him spit up the sushi.

"Yes! Fascinating, but for another time! Care to tell the Prince about your profession before he bores of talking harvest?"

"Ah yes," he stood with a smile and straightened his ragged clothes, "In studying under many alchemists in the kingdom, I am Bertram Pascall."

Jack leaned over, "You are a man of science?"

"Why, yes, pray tell in a sense, I am!" He could tell that the gears were turning in Jack's head, but assumed it was the stress that came with power over a kingdom.

Jack rubbed his chin. The sound of his fingers against his five o'clock shadow was faint. He stood up and held his hands behind his back in a pensive manner, taking stumbling strides towards the exit of his hosting quarters.

"Would either of you, by chance, care to see a 'project' I have been working on?" Jack turned his head slightly, as a formal invitation was far too mundane for the reveal he had in mind. More so than the reveal, however, he was worried about the company's reception of what he had in store.

The two were captivated by the suspicion. Robin Hood got to his feet and removed his hat, "While I entertain the thought of a project, I worry that it may be to no avail if this project heavily revolves around the...the missing wife…"

Jack had a glaze over his eyes when he turned. Not one of tears or tire, but of obsession. Also, the sake didn't help.

"If I am being honest with you, yes, this theory I plan to follow is about her," Jack whispered sparingly, "the gods must have some knowledge of this. If not them, then somewhere in this world, there must be something to bring me through time."

Bertram spoke up with an excited expression, "This idea, it does make sense. Theoretically, if something like Aku was powerful enough to send you into the future and an enchanted sword were all needed to defeat him, why not have something of equal or greater power elsewhere?"

"Yes, precisely!" Jack's face lit up with joy. Finally! Someone who didn't see a lost effort in something. "After all that I have seen, there has to be an alternative out there, whether it is created from gods, science, or sorcery. There has to be an option!"

Robin Hood still looked uneasy, but his reluctance was dampened by seeing his friend's face brimming with joy.

"All right Jack, I would love to Gander at this project."

And that was all the encouragement that Jack needed.

He made haste with purpose, only stumbling on his house sandals once or twice, even going up the stairs he was performing like a madman. It wasn't a triathlon but he was definitely treating it like one. Robin Hood had trouble keeping up with him, and this was a man who wasn't wearing wooden sandals. The commoner, out of breath, had trouble keeping up with the both of them but did eventually after asking a Palace guard for directions.

Jack waited with anticipation. His top knot was more so a half top knot as much of his hair was strung about and wiry. defying Gravity itself like his Fierce enjoyment of the reveal was sending shocks through his hair follicles.

He threw open the door to his quarters, and the walls were literally plastered with pages from books, drawings of insane contraptions, and scribbles over everything. Most of this made no sense, but Jack tried his best to connect certain ideas and certain pages with twine, tied to Sticks that poked through the paper.

His company found it safe to say this was an obsession.

"I apologize for the mess, I've had trouble organizing these thoughts." Jack rummaged through papers in an effort to organize an already messy pile.

"Well this is quite a sum of information," Robin Hood exclaimed in awe, "How long have you been working on this collection? How long do you think that we will be working on this task?"

Jack turned to them and bowed, "Gentlemen, it would be an honor to have you accompany me on this journey to its end, but I understand that you have lives of your own; Families and loved ones. I have spent nearly a century without my family, and I would not wish that experience even on the worst of people. This trip does not have an end in sight, so if you would like not to take part, all is well."

Maybe there was a method behind the madness that was Jack's inner psyche.

"I do not wish for you to bear the same experience that I once had. I only ask of you some assistance in finding this trail and getting started."

A breeze swept through and gave life to the papers on the walls with little flutters. The tapping of stiff paper against shutters replaced the silence in the room, and even though it was brief, it made the hairs stand on his friends' arms. There were traces of conviction sewed into his words, overlapping determination. the sort of certainty that only a man that witnessed, lived, and nearly died for such a sight could obtain.

Robin Hood bowed back, "How may I assist in this search?"

Jack's face broke into a wide grin and he lunged for Robin Hood in a warm embrace.

"You have my deepest gratitude!" He exclaimed holding his comrade's shoulders, "Once you return home, I need you to acquire any information on specific landmarks that the English may have in their colonies. With such an expanding country, soon you will have maps from all over the world."

He ran to the corner of his room and ripped a picture off the wall. It was a crude drawing of a large, square-based pyramid that stood tall and resembled a diamond sticking out of the ground. Around it lay what looked like scrap metal and a broken pair of glasses on the ground.

Jack handed the parchment over, "This was the last thing that I remember about the portal. It was unlike any other portal because unlike the ones that wavered in the air, this one was physical. If by chance it was still existent in the past, before Aku, then there is a chance it could function."

There was slight confusion, he could tell.

Bertram questioned it, "but if you know not where she is, why assume that she would be in some other time?"

"It is simply contingency, something to fall back on." Jack walked to the doorway.

"But soon, the gods must answer for the innocent woman that gave her life so that others would live."

 _And you are going to be the one that asks_

He paused, "and I will be the one to ask."

* * *

Captains log:

Many apologies for not updating more. Jack's chapters are not healthy for writers' block, because when I think 'Samurai Jacks timeline has to get in on the action somewhere', I also see it, for some reason, being more factual than an 80's timeline that's plotted like every 80s action film.

Regardless, gonna start stepping up my A game and bringing out the new chapters! Thank you all for tuning in, this is your captain signing off!


	6. Chapter 6: Died in your Arms

_This is impossible._

 _This cannot be happening._

Ashi took a step back. As sure as reality itself, there he was, directly in front of her. Jack, or whomever this was in front of her, sat with a nuanced contemplation. He had to be Jack, though he was more foreign than ever before. Even in their first encounter, the samurai stood tall like an oak tree, with conviction in his stance. This was a broken man; a husk of what once was, spackled with scars and grime. He wore a white letterman jacket, obviously worn to the extremes, with scorch marks and powder burns littering the front like a canvas. An insignia on the back stood out as something polished and metal. It was the insignia that represented his kingdom from before.

"What's your deal? You dig the eye? Lemme tell you, it was expensive."

His jargon was dismissive, with vile undertones. Eli was right to a certain extent; he was definitely a man made for this world, but only because the world made him. It would make sense, fifty plus years would do that to a man. This Jack seemed to have broken down long ago. He didn't have the same sweet charm or innocence. The one that she loved could find his hope once again, but the Jack in front of her had rosy cheeks and reeked of alcohol. His natural eye was bloodshot with heavy bags underneath. The dried blood in his beard was a subtle, yet disgusting addition to his unkempt demeanor. Completely beside herself, Ashi realized what rock bottom truly looked like, and it was unfortunately still strikingly handsome.

"Alright, fine," he scoffed, "I'll put the eye patch on." he pulled an eye patch from his pocket and wrapped the lining around his messy hair, "South, who the hell is this chick?"

From the doorway, Eli turned from the bouncer, "She's your wife from another time."

"I've never been _that_ drunk."

"Bullshit, Jack. You're that drunk every other Tuesday," Eli limped towards the bar, "but her story is one of the most unique I've heard."

He leaned in and whispered in his ear, "She is one hundred percent human from the readout that my office gave, and she says that she's the big evil's daughter. That's how unique it is."

Jack furrowed his brow and turned to face him, "And you buy that shit?" He whispered back in a snarl.

"She lifted cousin Krieg and hurled him out the front of the bar with almost no effort. No one's been able to even move him, and she just picked him up without a sweat. That's unique. And whatever she is, I can tell you she's head over heels for you, she's not faking that."

Jack rolled his eyes, spinning on the chair to the bar, "well I'm flattered, but I don't think I'm her type. She seems very...hopeful. Can't say where she would have found that in me."

Ashi gave the two an annoyed glare and folded her arms, partly because they were loud enough to overhear, so their whispering could use some work, and partly because the leather on her jacket didn't react well to the overhead industrial fans. The place was the stuff of bad dreams. Not quite nightmares, however, as the food smelled wonderful. She shook the smell from her nose and addressed the oblivious men in front of her.

"Jack, you don't...know me? Ashi? From anywhere?" her lip curled in distaste. What the hell was happening? There she stood, right in front of him, and he treats her like an absolute stranger. She took a deep breath. _Okay, so Jack is as familiar with me as I am to this future. Maybe he just had a bad blow to the head. I mean, that would explain the eye._

Her train of thought was interrupted, "listen, honey, if I don't remember you, I was either very drunk, or the night was very forgettable."

 _Maybe another hit to the Head wouldn't hurt that much._

"Tell me if this jogs your memory, Jack," Ashi started to raise her voice in annoyance," the first words I heard you utter were absolutely cryptic. You were bloodied and battered, yet you still managed to say nonsense like," She put on a stoic face and tried her hand at her best Jack impression, "ahem, 'the decisions we make and the actions that follow are a reflection of who we truly are.' And soon, I was the only one left to remember it."

That triggered something in Jack. His head turned to her with a jolt and fixed his eyes on her with intensity.

"Hey Eli, run and ask the chef in the back for some Po' boy udon."

Eli read his look and nodded. With him making his way to the back of the bar, it left the two of them relatively alone. Their eyes were locked on each other's with tension that could be cut with a knife, but a blade wouldn't be a helpful addition to the stare down.

"I've never said that to anybody, but somehow you know it." He gave her a cold glare. It was as if she had taken something sacred from him. This was outrageous. This wasn't like Jack at all, his stare was cold but his eye had a fire in it. He really had no idea who she was. It was getting to her.

"Like I said, you mentioned it yourself. Word for word."

Jack popped his neck, "If you are with the big evil, at least you've done your history."

"I have nothing more to do with 'the big evil'," she snarled, wider eyed than before and practically gritting her teeth, "thanks to you, that is. You and I traveled back to the past to destroy him, and landed a finishing blow."

Ashi brought a hand up to rub her temple. She squinted as nothing seemed to get through.

"But all that happened seems to be a lost cause because the bastard still controls this world, and you still have no idea what the hell I'm talking about." She sat at the barstool diagonal to Jack, resting her elbows on the table.

Jack hesitated his stance slightly. Assassination wasn't on her mind, she nearly had a vein popping out of her head in frustration trying to think whatever was happening through. _She could just be waiting for me to drop my guard, but this act is convincing,_ he calculated as he reached for his drink.

"Alright now, focus," he drew back her attention, "Don't think about now, let's think about then."

Her bothered gaze shifted to raise an eyebrow.

"So you're my wife, let's pretend that's what happened. I must've told you a lot about myself. Give me a brief history of Jack. Go for it, I may even buy you a drink before you mess up." That cocky smirk she loved emerged from his face, but the charm was lost here.

Ashi rested her chin on her hand and crooked her head, thinking about those enticing stories he told on their various travels.

"You never really had a childhood because of your training. At eight years old, you were confused and angry; confused why you were the one chosen and angry that such a force of hate controlled the life around you." Ashi watched as Jack's grin dropped slowly. He was good, he wouldn't let her see that these mind games were working. But she had studied the contours on Jack's face many times, oh many times indeed, and she could tell that something was amiss. "You enjoyed sitting in your palace window, watching the seasons change. When spring came, you would go down the woods and search for the finest cherry blossom petals. You and your mother would pick the petals, and even your father occasionally, when he wasn't overseeing the empire. You would speak of how your mother said to pick the ones from the stems that are a little late, to help them grow with a loving touch."

A tear escaped her eye and rolled down her cheek, "you always were a hopeless romantic."

Jack sat in silence with a fixed expression of awe. She was completely right. About everything. Down to the exact way he would have remembered it.

"What else did I tell you?" he was almost whispering, trying to grasp how this stranger claiming to be his wife knew about his life before Aku. Now he was the fascinated one.

"You were the first person to tell me 'I love you.'"

There was nothing but admiration in her eyes. He wanted to believe her, he really did. Had it not been for all the attempts on his life before, it would have been easy. But that just wasn't the case. He took a sip of his drink and set it back down. _No doubt she knows me but plenty of doubt how. There must be some way to find out what she's capable of, or if she's right,_ he pondered. Suddenly a flip appeared in his robotic eye. A tracker popped up on his radar. This tracker was put on a notorious murderer, home killed two lower-level bounty Marshalls. One of them must have managed to put out an A.P.B radar on the murderer, and they were nearby.

Jack got up from his stool, "well since you know the old me so well, why don't you follow the new me on outside?"

"What's outside that you need for me to follow you?"

On the way out, he looks over his shoulder, "a trial."

On the outside of the bar, sirens wailed blocks away, working on a fix for the monorail. Jack stepped outside and pulled his hood over his head. Ashi was soon to follow, closing the door behind her. They stood in the doorway as people walked past, it was midnight when most third-shifters started their commute. The bustling masses passed by in sparse groups. Ashi stared at Jack through a film of suspicion. The tracker in Jack's eye blipped faster as the convict got closer.

"Alright Jack, tell me about this trial." Ashi stretched, loosening up for whatever it was that Jack had in mind.

"Well, the way that I see it," Jack said scanning the people around them up and down, "you only know things that a different me would have told you, so let's see if a different me trained you to deal with people the same way that I do."

Suddenly the blip ran out on his eye, the man was walking about four steps in front of them with a very confused look on his face. He must have been from out of town, otherwise, you know where to avoid. With one Fell Swoop, Jack reached out with his arm and swung the man by his head to kneel in front of the bar. Ashi eyes widened as she was admittedly taken by surprise, and gave him a shocked response.

"Jack what are you doing?! You can't just pull people from the crowd and make an example out of them!" her brow furrowed at this questionable approach. The man before them was compliant, holding his battered hands above his head even as Jack ripped the hood off of his head.

"This man put two of ours to death," Jack grunted, pulling a gun from his hip and holding it to the man's shaved head, "and with that information, you're the decider in what happens to this man in the next few minutes, so decide like I would- or your version of me."

The people passing by widened their gaits, even avoided the sidewalk in front of the bar entirely, to dodge the spectacle happening in front of the pub.

"Is he human?"

"As human as they get."

Ashi shot Jack a stern look, "Then how can you suggest taking his life? No person should have to die unless there is no other option."

"You're saying that we should spare him? After he's taken the lives of two peacekeepers that we know of?"

Ashi walked between the gun and the man on the sidewalk. She knelt down to face him. His face was distraught with terror, eyes swollen from previous crying most likely. Murderer definitely wasn't the first thought that came to mind. With his patchy facial hair and soot-covered face, he seemed like he had been not only on the run but also frantic for safety.

"Sir," Ashi took up a surprisingly calm tone with him, "I would like to hear from you what happened."

He sniffled and coughed into his shoulder. His mood calmed once Ashi was willing to hear him out.

"I-I was just minding my own b-b-business walking down the street, when a couple of dudes with g-guns ran up to me and...and just started pummeling me. Got into town f-from two cities over, and I was taught by mama to fight." He broke into a sob again, "I never wanted anyone to die, I just needed some meds for my uncle."

Ashi reached out and rubbed his shoulder lightly, trying her best to tell him that all was fine without knowing what would happen. She stood up and turned to Jack, with bitterness in her eyes. She had no idea if his story was true or not, but she thought it only right to give him the benefit of the doubt before killing an innocent: one of the many things Jack had taught her.

"If anyone needs a trial here, it's this man," Ashi demanded in conviction, lowering the gun in Jack's hand, "and a fair one is the only one."

In a huff, Jack grabbed the man by his hands, still over his head, "once I find out who those boys were in that district, you'll go before the rest of the four and speak your piece." He lifted him by his wrists, "and don't think this means you're out of this shit jungle. That was just a trial."

Eli cracked open the door and stepped out with a hand towel between his fingers, "your food is ready."

At that moment, something made Ashi realize her hunger. She wasn't sure if it were the serving of justice that just happened or the defeated look on this crude Jack's face, but once that smell from inside hit her nose she knew that whatever was in that bowl would not last very long.

An hour passed since the food was served, the man taken away and the pair brought together supposedly by destiny in verbal silence, accompanied by the ambiance of smooth instruments that shook the purple neon lights above them. The shimmer across the line of liquor gave a kaleidoscope of mosaic collection. The pinnacle of light spread across the chrome bar and made the ceiling radiate. The two at the bar, however, were locked in a staring competition. A game of which one could read the other first, before the final verdict was made about the murders.

Eli walked out front behind the kitchen doors, pulling the tattered sleeve of his jacket over his arm.

"I just got off the phone with the council," he said with a brisk zip of his coat, "the two that were killed have a history of wrongdoing. And they were caught in this act by what he says, it would have been their last strike. All of it adds up and even what they said that's what they normally say. They weren't too original."

"So, you mean to tell me that this guy is getting let go?" Jack's voice tinted with fervor.

"By their words, it sounded as though he was the victim in this situation, Jack," Ashi responded with an irritated sigh, "You're not seeing this rationally, only emotionally."

"It's not emotion, goddamnit," a hellish roar exploded from Jack, "it's law; it's fucking justice for the murder of two men trying to protect the pace in this putrid fucking city."

Ashi twinged when she heard that. She hated that the innocent man she once knew had such a rancorous vocabulary now. It made her more certain each time that this was just a different Jack; that hers may still be out there.

"Sorry Jack, but your quarter of the votes didn't pass." Eli began to stray from the counter and towards the door, "When was the last time you even convened with the council?

"Fuck, it's been awhile," Jack hissed, vaguely recalling the last time they spoke, "after the last raid fell through, their plans are ten colors of stupid. There's no do, they keep dancing around on other people's problems."

Eli turned to the two of them in order to offer a rebuttal, but then he saw Ashi's face. It was one of determination but masked by grief and angst. Jack's face nearly matched, save added anger. These two felt the same way, however, they were too abrasive from the memories of their past to do anything about it. This was their journey, and it had to be done between them.

"Call it a gut feeling," he had stopped before the bar, "but things are gonna be shaken up around here, I know it. There's a fire burning between you two that can take this whole place in a blaze, but until you find that spark you're hopeless. Do what you gotta do Jack, but remember, people that are usually the chosen one don't end up and dive bars sipping cheap sake. Train her with what you can, and maybe she'll do the same."

"And Ashi?" she glanced up towards him, "if you're ever in need of work, drop by the bar. Brave people that can toss giants don't come by often!"

"If you're leaving, you might want your gun back." Ashi stood and walked to him, holding the gun out in her hand, "thank you for letting me use this crazy machine, and showing me how things tend to work around here."

"Oh I know where to get more guns," he said with a smile, "but it does my heart good to know that the one that I tinkered with most is in the hands a someone that can learn how to use it all over again." Her demeanor refused to waver, she was in a state of trance-like pensiveness.

"Besides, you'll need it," he said with a slight chuckle, "in case Jack gets on your nerves so much you gotta shoot him in the foot."

That did it, A hint of a smirk crossed her face and a slight exhale through her nose told him she could at least enjoy some malicious humor in his brevity of a goodbye.

Jack glared at the two, exchanging goodbyes in a heartfelt manner. Eli was like the nagging mother that would always tell people to put on a cardigan in case it was too cold out, he was a huge softie, but a very compliance strategist. _What a fucking dork_ , Jack thought as he rolled his eyes away from the two going over a map. First, he takes Jack out of his happy place by adding all this unneeded stress on to him, and then he has the gall to leave when he knows damn good and well that people would gladly watch his bar for him. But, he did mention that she was the daughter of Aku. Jack had his suspicions, all those the immense Display of Power from such a small woman it's hard to explain without any cybernetic enhancements. This could be that Old-World Magic or it could be an attempt on his life. After he realized that he didn't age after traveling into the future, he didn't see much of a downside, other than not being able to oversee his funeral plans to make sure that the dirt above his coffin would be quicksand, in case anybody decided to dance on his grave. It was literally do or die, so Jack took a dance with destiny.

"Hey, Ashi is it?" He haphazardly stood in a half-drunken stupor, "look, we have our differences, obviously, but you remind me a lot of myself. When there was something to fight for." She folded her arms and tilted her head up. He caught her attention.

"And if you need a place to stay, I have an extra room. Seeing as you'll be stuck in a place that you know nothing about for an undetermined amount of time, it only feels right to offer," he mumbled sheepishly.

For just a brief moment, Ashi saw the bashful Jack she knew. Underneath the gruff exterior and wavering moral compass, maybe there was more than he gave off. The thought made Ashi grin, "At one point, it was my only goal in life to kill you."

"Well I don't remember that, and if I did then you'd most likely have a lot to answer for right now. But regardless, you are here and know more about me than any other person on this planet. It's gotta mean something."

"It means you've lost your way, Jack," she replied, walking towards the door, "and whether you're the same Jack I fell in love with or one from a place I can't explain, there's still a corrupting evil here."

That was something he couldn't deny, but Aku couldn't simply be dealt with. She must have seen him do it with ease, as the threat that Aku posed now was great. With control of the cities and even some of the people, no place in the world was safe. He had seen the hateful eyes of Aku for so long and after one final time almost twenty years prior, he almost missed being able to stare at them. At least then he could think of what joy it would bring to slice them apart. The last time he saw Aku, however, was when the evil himself had disappeared into a flash of light, cackling. No, no, he was not about to reopen the memory from that day. Instead, he would focus on holding the door for this Ashi girl, for his own safety of course. Best way to watch his back would be to watch the back of those you don't know.

"Ladies first."

 _This world needs Jack, so maybe this time I can return the favor,_ she thought as she stepped outside.

This was going to be a long walk.

* * *

Captain's log

ALRIGHTY, YALL. IM NOT DEAD YET. It's been a weird transition, with moving and schooling, but life hasn't run me through yet! These two give me drive and I'm not out of gas yet! Enough analogies, though, time for another long chapter, hopefully not seeming rushed.

Until next time, this is a captain a signing out!


	7. Chapter 7: Fight Fire with Fire

"So, it is simple, yes? You demand the gods to appease your request or suffer the consequences?"

Jack's all too familiar apparition followed him up the side of the mountain, but the diatribe that seemed to go on fell on deaf ears. His mind raced about presentation; did the gods already know he was coming? Did they know what he was going to propose? Well, they had to hear about what he had to say. After all, he was the one to wield The Sword and defeat Aku. Without him, not even the gods could challenge the great evil that plagued the world. Of course, they had to listen to him. Right?

Though his sandals were made very specifically for comfort and durability, this mountain took no prisoners in splintering the soles of his feet. But Jack soldiered on as the winds around Mount Fuji swept chills through his legs.

"You lack the will to end your own suffering," his lookalike taunted walking beside him, "what makes you think that you can transcend whatever spiritual barriers may keep you and your grasping ambitions for your vanishing wife?"

Ashi had been the point of his diatribes for most of the hike. His words pulled at Jack's nerves, even though he held his tongue on the chance that someone, somewhere, would watch him shout into the air.

His conscience leaned aside a rock wall, "regardless of what your outlandish offer is, I sincerely hope it works."

That certainly grab Jack's attention. Without turning his head he raised his eyebrow, this was the first sentence ordering on positive that his conscience actually said. Didn't think that kind of positivity would feel it out so lightly. Something was off.

"This is sincere? Not a rousing comment?" Jack trudged on with a walking stick in hand. He almost turned to see if his conscience self were still visible to him, and had it not been for the large rucksack digging into his neck, he would have.

"No, I am not tricking you. Aku should not have the final say in our happiness. With Ashi gone, it still feels as though he managed to take an innocent in his passing." His conscience walked beside him and matched his pace. He wasn't smug or condescending for a change.

"Even in trying to save so many, I still couldn't save one," Jack sighed solemnly, "why must there always be a price to pay?"

"We both know the answer to that, Jack. Gods don't work for free."

His trudging had paid off once he reached the top of the mountain. The air was brisk and the view above the clouds spread to the ends of the earth in a blank sheet. He admired the sight but knew he had a place to get to. He cleaned the ground below him and sat down.

"We will receive an answer, one way or another." He closed his eyes and relaxed.

Hours later, he felt all presence disappear. He almost felt the earth around him cave beneath him, leaving him motionless. The lasting feeling came to a halt over time when the silence left his ears and was replaced a dense echoing. His eyelids lifted and before him lay a trail of what appeared to be star dust in an otherwise empty void of space. Jack stood reluctantly, stepping forward and taking his best shot at trying to Traverse this astral projection in front of him. This was different than when he had made it to space in the future. There was no hissing sound of air around his head or sounds of crinkling in a suit. No, this area had an echoing sonar to it. Something that resonated and bounced off unseen walls. He could feel the tremor in his bones. The path beneath his feet was loose in density, though it felt like he was walking on glass. He looked down to grasp exactly what he stood on, but the vastness beneath him attacked with vertigo. His gaze straightened forward as quickly as his eyes could move as he hyperventilated. He hadn't even realized he was breathing so fast until his steps nearly made him pass out.

The pathway in front of him spread out into a circle, with a strong light radiating from the center. The circle looked to be made of different constellations. Hesitant as he was to investigate this, ate already come this far. With a deep breath, he walked out towards the glowing lights in the center of the circle. He stood in the center and a deeper resonating sound filled the area around him. Free God's materialized before him in an array of flickering Cosmos. He recognized them; Ra, the God of Light. Odin, the God of War. Rama, the god of balance. All of the gods that deemed him worthy enough to re-attain his sword. Jack bowed before them humbly, glad to see them again.

"What counsel do you wish us to impart, worthy one?" Ra spoke diligently, getting straight to the point.

"Yes warrior, it has been far too long." Odin boomed, causing Jack to shake in his bow.

"Please fellows, enough," Rama held out a hand to silence the two beside him, "Can you not see that this hero is not accustomed to meeting with gods?" Rama's voice carried a consoling tone as he turned to Jack, "many apologies if this seems overwhelming, we are more familiar to prayers than we are discussions."

Jack stood upright and nodded, "thank you." they seemed welcoming.

"I am troubled by something, gods. I do not know if you have any control over this, but…"

"You seek consolidation. Of Your Love. Of where she is?" Odin interrupted as he crooked his neck slightly.

Ra dipped his head in acknowledgment, "Worthy one, as much as we understand your unwavering passion for this woman, she is of a different ilk," he intertwined his fingers, "there are guidelines to how we work things in the known universe."

"Even as we speak, there are some anomalies happening that we cannot control, a sort of interference," Odin replied, "on top of that, imagine seeing thousands of realities happening at once. Sorting through each one to find each minuscule detail that is out of place can drive someone mad."

"Well, thank goodness you have such a tried-and-true stress relief outlet, Odin."

"And what, pray tell, Might that outlet be, Rama?"

"Complaining!" Rama chuckled.

At this point, Jack was completely lost. Relieved, that at least the gods had a sense of humor but still completely lost.

"Please, I do not mean to interject, but if you could help me understand these separate timelines." he stepped forward.

Suddenly the gods affixed their Gaze on him. Not in judgment, but in fierce deconstruction. This wasn't particularly a change that Jack had wanted, but at least now he knew that he had their attention.

"Perhaps I am out of line to attempt to understand a God's study, but I-"

"You have shown an interest in meddling already," Odin interrupted once again, "with those men from the Western Society and their elemental studies."

Ra turned his attention to Odin, "come now, they have many centuries until the humans even grasp the concept of what we do."

"In many base worlds, that is true," Rama offered a rebuttal, "but let's not forget that the possibilities are limitless as to what may happen."

Jack began to grow weary of what they spoke of.

Ra looked down towards Jack and realized his worried nature, "Worthy one, in many of these timelines, you have managed to defeat Aku. But, for example, in few timelines, you failed to do so, or died trying."

Jack clenched his teeth and froze up, thinking of the evil that may still exist.

"What do you mean? Is Aku still alive? Here? I… I am… does that mean my quest to defeat him was meaningless?" he trembled in panic. For nearly all his life, his only goal was to defeat Aku. He gritted his teeth in fear that his suffering was for nothing and that his soul mate may be lost in the vastness of time.

"Rest assured, champion," Odin bellowed with a grin, "Aku is no longer a threat, all a testament to your bravery. His existence is fleeting as we speak. As for your loved one… Rama?" He deflected the question to the god beside him.

"She is a unique one. The woman you once held in your arms is alive, but as to where, it is not certain." Rama explained as gently as he could.

Jack gasped in relief, "She's alive?!" He nearly choked on his own words he cracked a smile so hard.

Ra gave him a concerned look, "again, we must emphasize that we do not know where, within this stretch of time, she is. Only that she lives, and for how long, we are not sure," he explained, "for she is still within the astral plane, but has become an enigma."

"How can I return her?" Jack inched closer, "not even the ends of the earth would stop my travels to bring Ashi ba-"

"Enough!" Odin barked angrily, "you and your science will cause consequences if you do not heed your fascination."

The giant stepped towards Jack in annoyance, "there are too many people that hold a belief that they can harness the powers of a god with simple algorithms. Some have achieved such power and hold little to no bearing on a universal change because they know not of the balance. They have hidden beyond our reach."

Ra spoke up, attempting to usher Odin back to their lineup, "they have most likely fled to the dark worlds, less we dwell on those forgotten places."

He was intimidated by the show of power before him. The god of war making a threat towards a mortal, even if chosen, was something to consider.

"Dark worlds?" Jack questioned.

"Places bereft of us, due to their scientific exploits." Rama explained as Odin and Ra began a discussion out of earshot, "there are few that still worship us in these timelines as their teachings have changed. It is unfortunate, but without an important need of us, we have fewer alternatives to manage. Regardless, life still finds its way!"

"Life does, doesn't it?" Jack bowed as the two gods returned from their talk, "thank you for your counsel."

Suddenly, Jack fell into a bright spiral and vanished from sight.

He opened his eyes to find himself atop Mount Fuji.

* * *

The gods stared at the spot where Jack stood as he vanished into the ground.

"For a man with such a small grasp of the universe, he has quite an exit." Rama laughed.

"Indeed," Ra shook his head, "most guests use the door." He pointed to a silhouetted doorway down the path of star dust, barely visible.

"What is to be done of his new interest in tampering with time, Odin?"

"Well, he has already decided to go through with it," Odin pinched the bridge of his nose, "He should not be seen fit to do so, talking to himself like that."

Ra nodded, "We have seen this play out before. Who is in favor of stopping his progression?"

"There are enough similarities in the outcome of this, let us narrow it down to two," Rama assessed the situation with a hand on his chin, "Either he fails and the Romans take the initiative instead and sends the world into a war torn democracy for centuries, or he manages to reach a dark world."

"I am quite conflicted. He should not attempt to play God in the first place, though the outcome of his failure does sound rather enticing." Odin replied.

"There is no harm that cannot be fixed if he is to attempt this feat," Ra exclaimed, "whatever happens happens. Let him explore."

Rama nodded, "so we are all in agreement?"

"Aye."

"Yes."

"Then it is settled." Rama stared into the starry abyss above his head, "Best of luck, samurai. You will need it."

* * *

Captains log:

Things have gotten a little crazy post move. The theatre department has taken a shine to me and left me with very little free time. However, weekends have been kind so far, even if the mind has not. Most importantly, if anything comes to mind while reading this, don't be afraid to reach out! I always respond when I can, and value feedback.

Thank you for reading everyone! Until next time, this is a captain signing off!


	8. Chapter 8: Plywood Castles

Hearing tell of the true bustle of Aku's city from her early years, she imagined bustle had meant more glamorous. Earlier, the street with Eli's bar had a large variety of people, races, and other, but this area was much more populated. There were no cars in the streets, in fact, some areas of the streets were actually inhabited. Tents and makeshift homes littered the area while people on rustic scooters and makeshift hoverboards weaved through when they could get past. The people commuting on a barricaded sidewalk, however, looked wealthy, to say the least. Street vendors took to both sides, slinging heavenly smells around and drawing in paying customers, most staring down at glowing boxes. Ashi couldn't see what was on them, but each passerby held it close to their chests, so she assumed they must have been important. Their walk was silent between the two of them. With the cluster of noise going on around them, they couldn't exactly hold up a conversation anyways. Ashi looked up beside her and saw Jack's face pointed forward. He looked peaceful, with a relaxed face she hadn't seen on him before. The air was ripe with mostly tantalizing smells, tinged with filth. The food smelled unlike any familiar scent that had met her nose. The night sky was positively beautiful, at least what she could see of it. Only a few gleaming specks of light scattered the open canvas above, wrapped in a wreath of artificial glow from the rooftops.

Jack kept trudging through the streets, clicking on the sidewalk in his heavy boots just trying to get to the destination. He's been through this road so many times, this was the red-light district. Everybody was nice enough, even though they could barely afford the least expensive food even the street vendors put out. Who was this mysterious girl that came from God knows where and knows so much about him? His mind retraced any possibilities of shouting his life story when he was on a bender. His cybernetic eye dropped a file within the lens and scanned through; It was a long walk after all. He began scanning as they walked in tandem silence.

Among the distractions around her, Ashi was entranced by the lights most. The vague humming that ran through the atmosphere and the small flickering that each line of radiance carried. One stand in the distance stood out to her as the sign flickered, and it was either the flashing neon or what the man behind the counter was shouting. Jack spoke to her of a dish served from his home that was heavenly.

"Jack", Ashi's eyes lit up, "how do you feel about the sushi here?"

He kept his icy glare forward as if he didn't hear her. She nudged his shoulder lightly, which brought him out of his trance with a flicker of his Cybernetic eye. He tilted his head and looked down towards her. Ashi's eyes were furrowed as if she was trying to read him.

 _Oh hell, what did she ask?_

"Oh, yeah. Absolutely." Jack stammered, hoping he staved off the question. From her confused expression, he didn't make any sort of sense.

"The sushi here is 'yeah, absolutely?'" Ashi pointed to the stand with a snicker in her voice.

"Only part of town I trust to get sushi," Jack recovered, pointing from the stand to the open ravine down an alleyway, "It's closest to the canal. Always has premium slots for catching whatever's alive."

"It smells amazing."

"We just had bar food."

"You had the bar food," she said with a raise of her eyebrows, "if you recall, the only thing left at the end of the night was a bag of salted bread."

"Pretzels, and now that you mention it, yes." He stopped for a moment, with a brief hesitation, and then cut diagonally through the crowd. Ashi felt a tug on her arm and before she knew it she was moving through a crowd of people, only having brief instances and flashes of each face along the way. They were lit by dimly vibrant boxes held near their heads, or burning sticks hanging out of their mouths. It seemed further than it was, but I was probably due to the people flocking together and making the resistance even harder to go against. She was pulled out into the open and greeted with Jack's smiling face towards an equally smiling face of the man running the stand.

"What's on the menu today? Your ex-wife?" Jack chuckled.

"She'd be just as fishy as anything else on this table," the chef smiled back, "what'll it be, Jack?"

This was how Jack bantered. _At this point I should give it up, this absolutely could not be Jack_. The madman was greeting everybody with insults, it was insane.

As they parted the crowd, holding their food to go, their silence continued, with Jack's eye flickering through more patterns.

"Why did you address that man the way that you did?" Ashi broke their silent streak once more.

Jack broke away from his trance, a little annoyed, "I was just busting his balls a little, some people like to joke around." His eye flickered again.

She raised an eyebrow, "Do you think that you may have busted the balls of too many council members?"

He did not respond.

* * *

Once they got past the crowds of people, the buildings got taller and slightly more streamlined. Reflective walls bounced the ambient sparks that lit the bouncing maize of noise and mirrored images of a light-speckled skyline. Jack stopped in front of a doorway, underneath a fulgurating light.

"Home sweet home," Jack spoke, punching in numbers on a keypad, "just keep the volume down when you're heading down the halls."

He opened the door and walked across the tiled floor to the elevator doors placed between two ferns. She followed en route, with food in hand, passing by the wood-paneled front desk and overhearing the light melodic tones coming from the speakers on the ceiling. They entered the elevator and on the wall, one of the moving boxes that she had seen earlier was placed in the wall.

"And today, Rob, the belligerent onslaught on Chamisa and Booth resulted in an explosion, taking upwards of thirty lives. Control squadrons are still trying to narrow down the source of the terrorists, and please have been made towards anyone that may have information on their whereabouts."

Ashi gazed at the people carving symbols into the street as they ran from the cameras. Many looked like the insignia on Jack's back, shimmering under the long tubes of light within the elevator.

The room came to a halt and the doors slowly opened to a dimly lit hallway full of doors. A shuttered window let in segmented light from the streets. A lonely fern sat in the corner of the hallway. Jack approached one of the cookie cutter doors and pulled a key from his jacket.

"I'm sorry for the cramped quarters," Jack mumbled, focusing more on the lock giving him problems, "you can take the couch. It folds out and it's closer to the bathroom." The lock tumbled open and just like that, she was home.

Rain pattered down alongside the awning as they enjoyed their meal, but not before Jack introduced Ashi to the modern amenities that graced his place. She was floored by actually seeing the tv up close, and when he explained to her that the person on the news was somewhere else entirely, it blew her mind. After a quick mishap with metal silverware in the microwave, Jack decided to give her an in-depth tutorial on how to work the kitchen. Once Ashi got a handle on how things worked in the kitchen, Jack paused and thought it best to show her how the bathroom worked as well. Ashi had made herself comfortable on the couch while Jack sat in his tattered la-z-boy.

Jack didn't think he would have company anytime soon, especially under the conditions of undetermined extended stays. He wished he had more entertainment but all she had seemed to enjoy television a great deal. She was even enthralled by it, he found it refreshingly comfortable that he didn't have to entertain, but a little guilty for not jumping at the chance to. After all, he didn't get a lot of company.

It was not because Ashi felt uncomfortable there, not at all, but something felt amiss. She was sitting on an extra-cushioned couch in oversized pajamas, eating hot food and with Jack no less. But if it wasn't the atmosphere that was clouding her judgment to lean in and give him a kiss, it was the underlying shift and a dynamic that they shared. Not the jack sat across from her, but her Jack; the one that had an undying awkwardness to the way they felt. How each thing that he did was equally in mind of her safety and his. She missed when she knew what Jack stood for, and not having a version of who she loved, of whom she could read nothing.

"This is the kind of fine dining you'll find around here," Jack said as he stuffed noodles into his face, "it may be bad for you, but it's good as hell."

Ashi looked over, and even though he looked recognizably different, his disheveled look after getting out of the shower was defiantly warm to her. She denied the thoughts of what she wanted to do with that body with discretion and only a slight blush.

"With good food, compact living, and things like this," Ashi shrugged motioning to the TV, "you seem comfortable. That's something I never saw from you."

"Oh yeah?" Jack took a sip from his beer, "for the most part, I guess. Once you make life simple, you don't have to worry about much."

She nodded and smiled faintly. The show on T.V. flickered along with the lights. The sound of distant gunfire rang through the windows. Ashi inched closer to her gun beside the couch, placing her hand on the charging handle and racking it back slowly. At the sound of the bending spring being pulled closer, Jack placed his free hand on her knee. She turned her head with a glance towards his fingers extending across her leg with a delicate touch. Ashi looked up to see his head turned blankly towards the television, only lightly nodding in disagreement, and promptly removed his hand.

"Don't worry about it. Probably just the cultists," He furrowed his brow and chuckled, "fucking nuts would sell their firstborn for a new gun. Hell, I think a bunch of them may have done that in the first place."

Ashi's eyes sank to the reflection of the television light on the coffee table. The glimmering reflection flickered off of the shining black surface.

Her hand recoiled from the gun, "how do you live from day to day, Jack?"

"I get up every morning like the last," he sighed, "then I do what I need to where it needs to be done."

"I noticed you're doing it all without your sword, as well." as soon as it was out, she wondered if she had crossed the line. Making it about the sword would have been a stretch, but the reactions that Jack expressed at the bar proved he might not see it as such a far-off offense.

He stood quietly and walked into his room. From the couch, Ashi heard metal clattering. She stretched across the couch to catch a glimpse of what he was rustling through. On looking into the room, a rustic footlocker with pictures and trinkets. Jack waded through the contents with his arm and retrieved a long wrapping. His eyes were fixed longingly at the casing. Before he could stand, Ashi leaped back to her side of the couch.

"I had almost forgotten about this thing," Jack's voice carried from his room, "whatever magic this thing was made from definitely wasn't meant to stay sharp."

He sat down beside her and began to unwrap the sword, "the day after I used it, the thing couldn't hold an edge to save my life." He handed the blade over to her, "yeah I thought about pawning this thing a while back, but something about it stuck with me. I don't know, I guess I just like to look. The idea of a sword to kick ass with."

Ashi held it in awe, it was Jack's sword alright. The yellow diamonds within the handle visually shot out of the comfortable grip. The blade was far from dull, but its sheen had been lost for what looked to be decades. She held it up underneath the light, drawing her focus more on how it reflected blue from seemingly nowhere, rather than what Jack had been saying. She glared at the reflection of her eyes gleamed in the blades reflection. As Jack went on about where he was given the sword, he turned to notice Ashi brimming with amazement. He nudged her side with his knuckles.

Their eyes met, and a silence crept across them; one that spoke volumes of its own, trebles of admiration and overtones of fascination. The connection was settled for a strong minute. Ashi glanced back towards the blade and held it, blade downwards, beside Jack.

"Your heroic look was definitely more convincing by having a sword, but you gave me compassion without it," she leaned in and kissed him on the cheek, "always fighting for the good of others because no one else would, that's what I saw in you."

The tension could be cut with that sword, had it been sharp enough. Jack reached out and placed his hand on hers. She didn't take her eyes off of his for a second. He leaned in and kissed her. It was spur of the moment, and all she found herself leaning into his kiss. That sweet embrace that she longed for, the feeling of painstaking passion caught her by surprise as she grabbed him by the back of his hair and pulled herself deeper into his advance. Jack wrapped an arm around her waist to pull her closer and one around her upper back. To Ashi, his technique was amazing. It was the way he fervidly grasped her, or how he ran his tongue along the inside of her mouth and danced with hers. To Jack, her embrace was unbelievable. It could have been the alcohol or too many T.V dinners, but the only thing that mattered at that second was that he was feeling vulnerable and she seemed strong enough to hold him as well. It had been too long since a moment of affection like this graced him.

Their embrace seemed to feel like an hour when in reality, it was a few minutes. The moment was ended almost at the same time by a faraway explosion, with both of them opening their eyes in a realization of what was happening. They broke apart and separated to separate ends of the couch with separate expressions. Ashi leaned on the side, collecting herself and in shock after realizing what they just did. Bringing up her arm, she wiped the saliva from her lips, not in an act of disgust, but one of qualm. Jack faced her with an insecure affliction, have pings of consciousness ring in his head. He worried that he may have come off as desperate for company, especially company that something in him, or some version of him. He got up from the couch and picked up his scraps of food, striding into the kitchen.

"You, uhh… you should get some sleep," Jack stumbled on his words as he shoveled the remnants of food into the trash and placing his utensils in the sink, "we've got to check up on what made that explosion tomorrow, see if we can help around."

Ashi shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Sure, that's probably for the best." She sat cross-legged, resting her hands on her knees.

Jack walked towards his doorway but stopped barely short of entering.

"Ashi?" she turned to meet his eyes, "I hope you're right about me."

Jack walked into his room and it of sight.

Ashi tried to stay comfortable on her makeshift bed. Jack was right, it had very comfortable pillows. Bullets rang out in the distance as the tucked herself underneath quilted blankets. In a civilized city where everyday life could keep up, it seemed out of pace to have cordoned off areas where there was constant battle. The sounds of war, however, were almost calming; from as far as they were, it almost sounded like music. Exhausted and pensive, she fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow.

* * *

Captains Log:

66 days

It's been more than two months since I've updated this and I've been kicking myself every day. On a positive note, the hump should be over with now that the life-consuming musical is finished and the holidays are coming up! I may have mentioned before that I have detailed plans for this story, but my plotting doesn't seem to be working out so well for me. I'm drawing out an outline for this next chapter as a sort of reference in order to better organize some of these ideas, so we'll see how that turns out soon!

As always, I love you all, Jashimonth is going on and I'll be putting up some artwork in catch up for there as well, and many apologies for not keeping you all updated!

This is a captain, signing out for now!


	9. Chapter 9: Rock the Casbah

Perhaps fate had taken a shine to him, or perhaps it was the hot desert sun beating down over his straw hat. It had taken three weeks to travel to Saudi Arabia, and even then, his memory served as a difficult map marker, but his destination was certain. If there was a place beyond the stars that he had to find, then he was going to get help from the man he learned from about the stars.

Master Rikuto was one that had his head in the clouds, often literally. He was an astronomer that had taken Jack under his wing almost the moment Aku struck. Someone had mentioned that he and another instructor had found a great rift in the sky from their observatory in the middle east. It had been since the wedding that he saw his Mentor, sheikh Fahim, but he thought it time for a visit nonetheless. After spending hours in the desert, the men behind him were beginning to get overheated. As a courtesy of the emperor, these men were to "pose for peace", but as Jack knew it, "protect my kind son". The finest of his ilk were by far the finest to come from any Palace in the region, but his father made the mistake of overloading them with gear, which didn't make them feel too well in the excruciating Heat.

"How close are we, prince?" one of the accompanying samurai was suffering without knowledge of where the prince was taking them. No one in the party besides Jack himself knew where they were going, and he would simply inject 'somewhere off the beaten path'. They were approaching towards a sanctuary, one that lay in the passage towards the mountains. It was finally in sight, lush with trees lodged in between rocks and providing supple shade.

"Shelter is not far now," Jack spoke back towards his party, seeing the divide. He had recognized it from his childhood. His travels with Sheikh Fahim as his guide led him across the desert. This chasm was not far from his teacher's kingdom, as he recalled. These were the training grounds in avoidance with horses, with rocks hurling down the surrounding walls.

Jack glanced down at his mount; a camel, much smaller than the shuttles from his experiences in the future. He smiled and pat its head. Its hair felt soft and warm from the sun above, so Jack pulled his flask from his side and poured a handful for the camel.

The pass shaded the ground beneath them, blocking the heat with its towering face. Jack and his guards dismounted their camels and collapsed to the chilling sand, basking in its comfort. Jack raised his canteen to sate his thirst when his camel sat beside him. Jack smiled, leaned on his camel, and closed his eyes. His sight took a break, which left him to his other senses. He heard his company sitting, rolling out bamboo mats to eat on. The trees that lined the pass rustled with a gust traipsing through the branches and dancing on their brittle leaves.

It was tranquil, peaceful in a way that Jack never get accustomed to.

With good reason.

There was a growing sound of sand and wind pushing further towards the edge of the pass overhead. Not just sand, but the contact of it between air and metal. The sheen of swords rang out. Jack's eyes perked open as he jerked his head around in order to witness the perpetrator of this noise. Lights flashed in his eyes, he could barely make out what looked to be a small sandstorm approaching at a rapid pace. He narrowed his vision to what looked like a figure inside of the whirling storm.

The figure moved from a slow advance to a sudden stride, closing the distance between each other with intense speed. Jack stumbled down the face of the divide as a sandstorm swept overhead. He ran around the bend to his men.

"Prepare the convoy," he shouted as he tossed their cooking ware to them, "head down the pass with vigilance." Jack drew his sword and planted his feet.

"Yes, young lord, please call for assistance if it is needed," the lead guard hesitated briefly, "Your father will not be pleased if you get hurt, lord."

Jack's position was affixed to the ridge, "I've survived worse," he persisted, "and I would not like to have your injury on my conscience."

The guard nodded and sped down the pass. Jack's eyes narrowed and he frantically climbed the pass. The sand cyclone grew closer and the more ground it covered, the more silhouetted figures came into view. A line of five shadowed figures, cloaked in thinly veiled sand, approached Jack. His face was getting blasted by roaring winds of sand, making his vision blurred. With a swipe of his arm, Jack covered his eyes with his straw hat.

This was not his first tango in a sensory deprived area. His bout with the archers took some time to adapt to, and being thrown into this situation literally in seconds, he had to approach this blind. Sand blasted his hat making it hard to hear though felt movement all around him that moved with the swirling winds. Jack could feel footsteps around him though muffled. He swung his sword to the right and it was met with the collision that only steel could make. He yanked his sword to the left, tilting it mid-swing, and hit another metal object. With the force that he was swinging with, Jack was in shock what he hit hadn't broken yet. Whatever this was, it was tempered with a force nearly otherworldly.

The attacking halted and the sandstorm around Jack fizzled out into the air via faint spiral. Four masked attackers stood guard in a square formation, their weapons drawn on Jack. Despite his disfavored situation, he stood his ground against the ones the circled him. Parts of their garb had been shaved off and sliced by the deflection of Jack's blows, yet they stood strong.

"What brings you to these lands, traveler?" A sly voice whispered from one of the assailants, "and one with such fame."

"We do not take pleasure in using what we gifted with against one so…" one of them trailed off, only to be picked up and continued by the one beside them, "worthy, yet we cannot allow you to jeopardize out gift."

Jack straightened his knees and stood tall as he pulled his sword to one hand.

"The power you hold is remarkable, though I am no stranger to such an occurrence," he exclaimed with conviction, "I do not seek your gift, or to take it from you."

A long pause rested over the small skirmish. Uncomforting and nerve-racking, with the daggered eyes of Jack's assailants digging into his being.

"No…no you're not...are you?" One of the ragged men finally hissed with a grin, "you are looking for something much more. Your eyes burn with yearning. They pierce with stubborn ambition."

Jack fixed his gaze on the figure, seemingly staring directly through him.

"Perhaps our paths may cross again soon, prince." In an instant, the figures moved in unison at incredible speeds, circling Jack. They picked up a cyclone if sand and created a solid wall between the samurai and his unknown counterparts. Sand kept up in an intense stream, blasting against his hat covered face.

Within seconds, they were gone. Disappeared into the desert without a trace. Jack peered out into the emptiness. Not a soul in sight. He heard a rustling of rocks from the ridge behind him. It sounded very much like the comfort of wooden sandals. Jack sheathed his sword with a click and met his party at the ridge, ready to depart.

That evening in the grand city of lost knowledge, Jack sat on the end of his bed in deep meditation and prayer with reluctance. The two instances could connect, a rift in the sky and extravagant unnatural abilities. He became puzzled of the beings that approached him that day. Such power strongly resembled forces that only became common when dealing with Aku.

Benevolent powers left behind from darker times, but good that came from another time was rejected? He couldn't figure out why. He unfolded his legs and placed his head in his hands. It didn't matter why. What mattered was what was he going to do in order to gain more than an understanding.

He was headstrong for a resolve.

He was dead set on discovery.

He could see more clearly than ever before.

 _Madness, that can't be…_

Jack collapsed in his bed and stared at the ceiling.

 _Soon enough, I will understand. Soon enough._

* * *

Captains Log

Hiatus brought on by a few hang ups, and a long one it was.

Have a few WIPs on the press and the next chapter will be up in a few days.

Thank you all so much for reading, each view makes my heart a little lighter!

Until next time, this is a captain signing off.


	10. Chapter 10: Sultan of Swing

There was a smell that she could never get used to.

Ashi filled her lungs with the air around her in a deep breath, but the elevation didn't help. Jack and Ashi we're perched in the maintenance paths on the Rail lines, elevated above a highway. It was almost time for them to get the drop on a bounty they've been after. She'd been hunting joining Jack on his contract jobs for about three weeks, and he had mentioned that this would be the hardest one yet.

No room for failure, no room for remorse, lives would be on the line.

Jack's hands trembled slightly, with a mix of rage and anticipation. This was his shot to blow the sky right off of the various shady dealings by his home. His block has a chance to be a little cleaner. He joined Ashi, standing on the edge.

"Hope your skills pay off and show, otherwise we're gonna find out real quick how fast traffic can turn us into mincemeat." Jack inhaled deeply and popped his neck into place.

Ashi glanced over to him, standing stoically on the ledge, "to hell with traffic," she cracked her knuckles together as a black covering spread downwards from her fingers and across her arms, "anything that gets between me and the target is going to regret being there."

"If I die, make sure it's an open casket." Jack breathed, looking down at the flashes passing at a hundred miles per hour.

"Why? You wanna show everyone the improvement the ground would do to you?" Her smirk was wicked and well received by Jack, who let out a hearty chuckle.

"That one was harsh! You're getting better at that," Jack complemented as he chambered a round in his gun, "but chit-chat time is over. Remember, we can't-" he was cut short as he tried to give Ashi her rappelling gear, only to see that she'd already jumped.

"Get your head in the game, Jack!" Ashi laughed as she gracefully fell. She had a smile on her face, so that was a good sign. It was not a good sign to Jack that she was plummeting to a highway.

Alone.

Without harnesses.

And with his house keys.

 _She's gonna get me killed_ , Jack thought as he quickly latched his carabiner to the railing and sailed down through the air. He was chasing bread crumbs, and facing death to find a way.

 _Step one: breath_

The air around him passed in choppy patterns, making it harder for him to catch his breath.

 _Deep breaths. Avoid the bugs, imagine what flowers they would put on Your Grave. Probably cherry blossoms, or none, about the same amount who'd know to bring flowers if they came._ His thoughts raced as his descent to the highway below. Ashi was far ahead with thoughts of her own.

 _Sultan of Swing, you're going to tell me everything after I'm done with you._

* * *

11:36 A.M

20 days before.

Daylight crept through the selected blind reflected from the large incandescent windows lining the horizon outside.

Ashi woke up on a mess of blankets with her hair strewn about over her face. She felt like she'd slept for days. Her eyelids pinched in discomfort when the sun began to reflect from the glass coffee table.

Ashi stretched, taking in a deep breath and letting out a yawn. That violent beaming from the window did not give her adjusting eyes a break. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. Her arms sunk into the couch as she got up. Jack was right in every aspect about that couch, it was the definition of comfort.

Humming came from the kitchen, along with frying smell that caught Ashi's attention. She traipsed the small distance it took to see past the divider. Memories from last night flashed in her head, which she promptly removed with a squint and a quick tilt of the head. She leaned on the wall, watching Jack fry what was assumed to be breakfast.

"How'd you sleep?" Jack asked back, catching her off guard.

"Very well, thank you for asking," Ashi replied groggily, "the couch helped a lot with that."

He smiled and added a few things to the breakfast.

"I'd say, you've been out for half a day."

"Damn, It's already noon." She groaned, pushing the hair out of her face.

"Yes indeed, still early."

Ashi wandered over to the window and cracked the blinds.

"I was hoping to see the aftermath of that explosion last night before anyone else got to it."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that, the scrappers won't be down there until after dark," Jack shrugged as he turned the burner off, "we've still got a few hours."

Jack carried a tray of food out to his dining room table, which happened to be a small folding table against a corner wall. Ashi followed behind and sat across from him.

Awkward silence plagued their meal. occasionally one would glance up at the other one and when they noticed, the other quickly look down. Jack and Ashi were putting off the inevitable conversation regarding what the hell exactly happened the night before. Jack inched his eggs across his plate and Ashi prodded the hash browns. Not to be mistaken, Ashi did not think that the experience was bad. On the contrary, it felt almost too advanced compared to the awkward, sloppy embrace in the prison.

Ashi set her utensils down and eased into the conversation, "about...what happened last night-"

"Yeah, it didn't feel right-"

"Right, but not-"

"Not the uhh-"

"Mhm, not the form-"

"Oh thank you-"

"It's just the timing-"

"That's true, and we probably-"

"Shouldn't jump into things. I mean, we just met-"

"Formally yeah."

"Yes, exactly."

A brief look of understanding crossed their faces before they both promptly redirected their attention to the food in front of them.

"Listen, I jumped the gun last night," Jack stopped eating his eggs, "it was a moment of weakness, this place has been so...empty for the longest time. I shouldn't have put that on you."

Jack motioned in a swiping motion as Ashi glanced up, "Can we put last night behind us?"

Ashi nodded, "sure, let's look to what happens next," giving an innocent half smile.

* * *

2:19 P.M.

20 days before.

The two approached the explosion site. Before them stood a building without a face. Vaguely reminiscent of a dollhouse, the rooms were open to the air and sending papers gliding into the sky. Further in the distance rose the faint popping of gunfire. The people nearly bumping their shoulders on the streets seemed to accept it as any other aspect of a normal day. With her hands in her pockets, Ashi looked past the smoke to see the skeleton of the rooms stacked among themselves.

"Okay," Jack clapped his hands together, "let's start scrounging."

He took lead by climbing the rubble towards the nearest available room. Ashi took the one next to it. The room was coated in ashes in a dark gray color on the walls; the shell of the building was laced with the strong stench of carbon. Shadows from various objects stuck to surfaces with the objects nowhere to be seen. She approached a desk to see if anything inside survived. Inside the drawer were basic office supplies, practically melted. She closed the drawer and the wall in front of her caught her attention. It had the shadow of a person, with long hair waving in the air. Ashi stopped cold and slowly moved her view to the desk. Covered in an along with everything else, but most of it being a person made it far worse. Ashi cringed at the thought of a person being absolutely eviscerated, lost to the earth and leaving no trace of who they might have been. In her grim assumption of what the woman's last thoughts were, Jack wandered into the room. He glanced at the shadow on the wall as well. They stood side by side, eyes glued to the silhouette.

"It won't make you feel any better," Jack leaned over, "but you couldn't have done much to stop this."

Ashi turned and scowled at him, "this is hardly the time to preach."

"Preach what exactly?" Jack questioned with a scoff.

"That the ultimatum is pointless."

"Listen, I'm not sure if you can see it any other way. You wanna beat yourself up for not being here in time? This stuff happens constantly. All around here." Jack sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, "you can't be everywhere at once, kid."

"You can't say that, that…" she fumbled on her words, "you can't say shit like that when I know you feel different, you bastard." Ashi pushed him back, pinching the bridge of her nose with the other hand. "There's no way that even you- the unfeeling, crass, discarded man before me- do not have an ounce of empathy for those around him, leaving some illusion open for questioning that maybe it was fate that these people died an untimely death."

"No one can see into the future, and expecting people to is completely out of line," He threw his hand in the air and moved in, "Even if there was someone that could see the future, what would they be doing here, where there's nothing worth looking into?"

"Well, what you see is what you get goddamnit," he shouted and shrugged angrily, "I'm not that fancy knight in shining armor you think I can be, I'm human. I don't fucking get to everybody in time, and neither does anyone else." Jack looked back to the outline on the wall with a brief pause, followed by a sigh, "there are lots of things that you won't be able to reach in time, and it really takes its toll after a while."

At first, Ashi was furious that Jack could give up so fast, but one side glance showed her a different light. She looked over towards him and the look on his face was not of courage or bravery. It was a face of loss, staring blankly thousands of yards past the outline on the wall. A grim expression of understanding filled his profile, the kind of understanding that harmful hindsight can bring. They stood in silence, looking at the carbon covered walls.

It was a stalemate as to who would make the first move. Jack stared far beyond the wall, with a pensive intent behind his eyes; Ashi studied him, taken back by the vulnerability in his face. She could see that he knew about wanting to save the people he loved. It tore him to pieces. She felt weak at the thought of what he went through, or lack thereof said thought.

"Even if you don't manage to reach everyone in need," she coughed, "there are still people out there that need help."

"Couldn't even if I wanted to."

"So you want to," she faintly smiled, "that's...reassuring."

They observed the carbon outline like it was an art installation. As they continued through the broken levels of the previously existing building. They would stop in silence for the shadows found on the walls and floors. With the top floors cleared, they started pulling away cement to get to the lower levels.

Stone, rebar, metal, and ash littered the stairwell into the basement. There was no way into the lower level from the stairwell. The closer to the doorway they got, the more condensed the blockage became. Once they got to the more dense material, Ashi cracked her fingers.

"Stand back," she moved her arms to the side and took in a deep breath, "this could get dangerous."

Jack took a step back and folded his arms in wait.

Ashi grabbed at the debris and pulled.

No luck.

Confused, she tried once more. She'd called on her powers before, and at the time there was no trouble. She was put into a situation just the day before that led to her holding a robot's face against the insides of a train tunnel, and dig her feet into the steel floor. But now? It's nowhere to be summoned. She tried again, and nothing happened. Again, with a better grip on some rebar, only to make her angrier.

Jack remained in his folded arm stance, unassumingly. He'd love to see her show of power, but all he was getting was quite the furious lady throwing bloody fists at concrete.

"Is it still dangerous?" He sarcastically asked.

The sheer malice coursing through her body was insurmountable. For her, seemingly an unmeasurable feat, to lose drive like that.

"It would be an understatement to say how much contempt I have towards the power I harness," she exhaled through gritted teeth, "it took ten seconds to get the other you home after fifty years, and now I can't move a few measly rocks?"

Jack noticed her close observance of her hands, seemingly trying to grasp what she'd lost in frantic disorientation. He knew how she felt, yearning to reconcile those feelings. Feelings of absolute self-doubt.

 _Not gonna let her in, not yet._

Jack's eyes turned their direction to the floor as he walked away.

 _She's not ready for that to be addressed just yet, and neither am I._

Though his attention wandered, it did pick up a faint glow through the cracks in the floor directly behind the basement door. Access, guided by light.

"Hey, found something over here," He called out, motioning over when her head perked up.

She climbed the debris towards him, wiping the blood from her knuckles on the way.

"We should be able to jump down through here, but you shouldn't go messing up your hands anymore," He exclaimed. He held out his hand as a sign to stay back. Scanning the area, he found nothing useful on the ground to break through the concrete. Figures for an area practically wiped out. Ashi glanced up and noticed that part of the second floor still had part of a pillar attached to it. It had come loose from the wall, perhaps from loosened supports, and was inches from plummeting down in a hail of destruction. There was absolutely a solution in there.

"Jack!" She piped up with a smirk.

He glanced over the fingers of his extended hand in response. She pointed up towards the pillar. His mind put it all together and Ashi could practically see the light bulb above his head when a stupid grin spread across his face. Jack unsheathed his revolver with a spin and emptied the bullets into his hand. He stowed them in the pocket of his jacket, as he reached into his bandoleer to retrieve three bullets with blue tips.

"Okay, now you may really want to step back, these babies are concussion rounds," he skipped out from under the platform above, almost playfully, "it's like each shot is a sledgehammer flying through the air."

Ashi stood in anticipation when he lined up his sights. Dead set and silent. Sure enough, when he squeezed the trigger and popped off the first round, it hit, sending pebbles of concrete gliding through the air. Another crack of the gun fired and the large portion of pillar came tumbling down, crashing through the concrete and forming a perfect hole in the ground. Big enough for the pillar itself to break their fall and with enough space to maneuver inside.

"Good thinking, kid!" Jack laughed with a giddy smile and gave her a pat on the back. She didn't know how to respond to that, so the complementary grin and rosy cheeks on her face would have to suffice. Jack was jogging over to the fresh opening they just created when Ashi noticed a small stream of concrete dropping from above the second floor. She quickly looked up and saw something larger than the pillar.

 _That thing must have come unlodged once those rounds the structure_ , her mind raced, but she couldn't think fast enough.

The piece began to slide from the fourth floor and descend, with Jack completely unaware of what was going on, and directly beneath it. Ashi acted quickly, adrenaline pumping through her veins. She sprinted towards him with her eyes locked on the falling block. At that moment, time seemingly slowed to a near halt. Her body coursed with more than adrenaline, it coursed with a certain numbness and heat. One the wished came up sooner, but now put a smirk in her head.

Her power was open to her once again.

Ashi leaped from the ground, leaving hairline cracks in the floor where she stood. What Jack caught a glimpse of at that moment shook him to his core. He watched as Ashi's feet met with the falling generator and, in a movement nearly too fast for the human eye, sent it careening through the concrete wall and the into the house beside them. She fell onto the collapsed pillar in the ground with catlike ease. Jack was astonished, to say the least, complete with jaw agape. Ashi stood tall, healed hands at her side.

"So...I…" She stammered with a wide smile on her face and shrugged, "I channeled my power."

"I'd say," Jack slid down into the basement, "hope it lasts."

"Likewise."

"You think that falling hunk of metal triggered it? The stress?" Jack turned his head towards the sky, shielding his eye from the light.

"I'm not certain," Ashi noted. She checked her feet and pulled up her pant leg, finding a thin black film dispersing from her ankles, "it put me in a situation where you were in danger and I didn't have time to think, just time to act."

The two of them stood on the pillar as a beacon of light from the sun above beamed down on them, lighting the entrance.

They looked down the corridor and back towards each other. Fruits of labor turned out to be quite dark in the form of a hallway only lit by the light above and an eerie exit sign. Eye contact broke as their attention turned to the empty corridor.

"I'll lead," Jack grunted as he hopped down from the pillar, flicking on the flashlight attached to his revolver.

He shone his light down the hall as he led, with Ashi close behind and with gun drawn. The hallway ended by expanding into a much larger, darker room. Jack instinctively turned to the sides of the entrance, looking for a light switch. Lo and behold, on the wall was a yellow box, with a reflective pair of green and red buttons. Ashi pressed the green button and fluorescent lights began to light the room, loud clicks at a time. Before their eyes were dozens of tables, lined with what looked to be chemistry sets. It was a drug ring, crammed into the basement of a building that would rarely host an inspection based on suspicion. Most of it was cleared out, causing belief that it was an inside job. Of course, it was an inside job. On the back wall hung the poster of a man, dressed to the nines in sequin clothes and a wide-brimmed hat. It caught Jacks' eye and caused him to stop dead in his tracks.

"The Sultan of Swing." Jack managed to get out, almost in a daze as he broke his trance to rush into the room, scrounging for any papers he could find.

"Sultan of Swing? What significance does he have to all of this?" Ashi opened the nearest office with a firm grip on the handle, with no overpowered assistance much to her chagrin.

Jack turned and began a dead sprint for the door, cracking it open by throwing his body against it. He saw a computer terminal, still having power aptly lighting its brief text face.

"The Sultan of Swing managed to outrun us for years, and the whole time, he could have had an operation right next door." Jack hushed his voice in determination, tacking away at the keyboard in an effort to uncover anything. He pulled his hand up and ripped a cord out from behind his ear and jammed it into the computers' acceptance drive. The robotic eye lit up like a Christmas tree, projecting thousands of moving data particles on the area in front of them, "We've put bounties on his head, set traps, everything. The man has a way of convincing people to stick with him. We lost a lot of our kin to him."

"I'm sorry for your loss," Ashi said, in awe of the moving information in front of her.

"Don't be," Jack uttered, "they left our cause to fight with him. As far as I can tell, they died a while ago."

Streams of code and words shot through in a list, flickering on the wall. The projection became harder to follow as Jack leaned in further and focused more on the computer and his hands. Ashi saw the franticness as a drive. A wave of nostalgia washed over her, seeing him so driven.

 _It's there. He still see's a purpose,_ Ashi furrowed her brow, _he just needs a little more incentive._

"Hypothetically speaking," Ashi paced, forming everything together, "he's one of the elite in this organization, correct?"

"About third place in importance on his enforcer list, yeah," He said back, but he was fully focused on the computer before him, "he screwed up a bunch in trying to catch me, otherwise he would have been first."

The scanning stopped and his projection cut off. He took out the cord in a hurry and thrust his fist into the air in celebration.

"Yes!" He shouted, "they tried to clean up pretty well, but they didn't get everything."

"Well, quickly then! What did you find?" Ashi responded with the utmost urgency. This could be a big break. One more step to liberating this miserable city. She wasn't sure, but she was hopeful as hell.

"According to this ledger, their previous buyers of this product were located just south of Chariot Square, which is only a day from here," Jack paced across the room, "now, they couldn't have been the last buyers, because this operation now is far too big for the group listed here. It must branch out to most of the surrounding communities, with back orders from further away."

"And no one would go looking for a lab in a square of rubble," Ashi added, "so their thought process was to gain loyalty far enough away to let their heat die down. That means someone must have been on their trail beside us."

He leaned on the table in exacerbation, "There's no way we're gonna find this guy in the next few days, he's far too crafty for that. It's gonna take a while," he admitted with disappointment, "but we're gonna find him, and if we can, we're gonna get all the answers we can out of him."

Ashi walked over to Jack with a moment of hesitance, followed by a firm, awkward gesture for a handshake. She really was catching on.

"Right now, I've got all the time in a world I know nothing about. Whether I will make it back from where I came or not is unknown, but climbing this chain of command might gather some answers to my questions," She stated as if she was on a soapbox, head held high, "and the only thing I refuse to accept is a fate where this world will burn."

Jacked looked at her hand for a moment, chuckled, and shared a firm handshake with her.

"Let's start this hunt for the Sultan of Swing."


End file.
